DEVIN TOWNSEND – PowerNerd

One of my top musical heroes since…many years now (I couldn’t help but fall in love with the musician whose preconcert playlist included Aqua and Vengaboys and other 90s party hits, prior to an Oslo show many years ago and having tons of black-clothed mean looking people dancing wildly on “Barbie Girl”) So this hero of mine has announced a new album to be released October 25th. I guess it will be a combo of his own label Hevy Devy and for world wide consumption through InsideOut Music/Sony Music.

A bit over a year ago we had a chat with mr Townsend – read/listen here – and the impression was that the next release was to be this fantastic mega project “The Moth”. And that’s still gonna happen, based on a more recent interview, yet, life happens and this Powernerd project made its way in the releases pipeline, and it seems that together with “The Moth” and “Axolotl” one can look at them as a potential trilogy, at least in the fact that a lot of songs and ideas are quite near each other in time. Looking forward to the whole of it, and the bonus of “Ruby Quaker” show, but until then, here’s some impressions upon listening to the streamed songs of “PowerNerd”

Reading upon the title song, I found that Devin Townsend stated “It was a conscious thing, I thought, ‘I’ve spent so much time overthinking every aspect of my work – what would happen if I didn’t?’ Maybe I would have the opportunity to be a bit more direct with what it is that I’m trying to do. I really wanted to see if I could cut through some of the meandering.” And the titletrack (which features a guest spot from Jamey Jasta), really embodies all of this, and you can watch the video for that high-speed rampage of a song here:

I won’t even get into the silliness of the video and the amount of smiles it put on my face. Of course, it’s always nice to watch a well created and designed, artistic video, but heck we need some silliness in these times filled with perfection and must do’s. And who doesn’t need to yell out loud at a metal concert “I LOVE PETTING THE CAT”? Well, this song will give you the chance. While there are tons of elements added (in)to the mix, which might take away from the rawness of it, I think it’s one of those catchy Devin songs, it’s intense and totally shows off his wide range of skills from singing, playing guitar, composing and mixing. Spiced with goofiness.

“Falling Apart” doesn’t continue in the same manner, and takes us into a slower dimension, still a heavy one, highlighted by epic style choruses and and heavy riffage. I keep hearing half of the songs from Z2 (the second Ziltoid) album throughout this song and I can’t complain as I really loved that release and the way it was a compact album while being all over the place. This song feels like it’s starting to show the emotional depth of this album, because this album has been heavily influenced by some less happy moments in Devin’s personal life and the emotional charge that was served to Devin, found its release in these compositions.

Some old game effects builds up the intro of Knuckledragger, a song which sees Devin playing with a lot of vocal skills and nicely building up both verses and chorus, plus some screams to “Let it out”, just as some verse dictates. We also get to head a bit about balls, but that’s nothing new in Devin’s universe. Moodwise, this song describes pretty much what happens after one falls apart and how wildly you can scream for a drink. It is also a good candidate for come funky drum solo, if played live.

Time for the slowed down section of the album, which debuts with the ballad like ‘Gratitude’, built on softer vocals and more eerie effects. It comes with a big wave of sadness. Followed by a 55 seconds dreamy part named “Dream of Light”, where I can’t figure out any of the words – except what sounds like “Dreams of Light”. I generally find impressive the wide range of vocal directions that Devin can go to and how he mixes together a bunch of subtle ‘echoes’ of the main vocal, but sometimes they can be a bit much and make no sense. But then, maybe this song is not meant to not make much sense, but more to introduce and lead you through to the next stage of the…album.

We stay in the slower musical realm, with the combo “Ubelia” and “Jainism”. They feel like cries for help – I think I actually read somewhere that Ubelia can mean help – and Ubelia points out quite bluntly how scary it is to be chained to the past, even if it’s something we all do quite naturally. I really love the bass line in this song. It’s so relaxing and soothing in a way. Again, the bridge part of “Ubelia” could have used some more clear vocals in my opinion. I personally like to understand the text of a song, and I feel like on certain parts, the vocals have been too much faded away. Doesn’t make the songs less melodic, just more mysterious for those like me, who care for the texts and try to digest it.

“Jainism” speeds up the pace mainly during the chorus, but it still has a soft touch during the verse sections, which might make you believe that peace has been found. However, it feels like the song is a yell at the madness of time passing and how everything is impossible to control in the end. While also embracing the fact, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong to want out and yell that to the universe.

“Younger Lover” brings some beautiful acoustic guitar to beautifully keep questioning what is all about anyway. All while you possess a lot of freedom. Good luck figuring out what to do with it. I have no idea what to make out of the next song, “Glacier”. I keep wanting to go back and re-listen to “Before We Die”, from Z2. I still feel a lot of Z2 throughout many of the songs on this album, but it is also Devin’s “style” I guess. Yet, on this song, the Z2 feeling is stronger, it has the same mood as those songs that end the first disc. Passing away, grief, feelings of futility, others’ attempts to comfort you. But can’t understand who or what’s the glacier, yet.

There’s a bit of order in what is suposingly the last ‘normal’ song of the album, “Goodbye”. The acceptance of departure. And the clarity. The guitar solo stands out so nicely here, it kinda feels like the chaos has been left behind and the song i finally making sense and flows like a song and less like a much needed relief of ravaging emotions. It is very relieving to be honest, after feeling so lost through the previous songs. This is the longest song on the album, but it flows so nice that it feels way shorter than any of the hectic ones that preceed it.

So I guess so far one can say that after the “usual” Devin initial song “PowerNerd” and this “Goodbye”, we surely got a glimpse at an emotional expression of whatever Devin Townsend went through during the days when he put together this album. I guess it’s ok that it doesn’t make sense, nor if it’s not gonna be a favorite, but I believe it will really speak to some souls out there on this planet who happen to go through the same and it will hopefully give them the permission to be ok to feel whatever they do and let it out and then just be allright after a while. But not before not being ok. We should all maybe learn to allow more of the not being ok to take over IF it needs to. If you’re lucky enough not to need it, just skip this part. Otherwise, let it happen and handle it. Don’t swipe it under the carpet of fake smiles.

Speaking of smiles. And grin. And hysterical laughter. The last song man…I don’t know where it comes from. The Gods of rock’n’roll had a say in it. And any deity involved in having fun. Not to mention the god(s) of coffee, if any. Not Ziltoid related though, yet a song full of coffee and good mood. You said goodbyes, you screamed out your frustrations, you made no sense and then you start a new song and sing about coffee, make it fun and silly and call i Ruby Quaker. Which is actually a real creature. Look it up. Now it’s also gonna be a real hit, and boy I can’t wait to listen and dance to it live.

Besides the complaints of ‘how I wish the vocal parts were more clear and less extra layered, in order for the words to stand out better’, I can’t think of aspects I strongly dislike on this release. Nor of any that fully blew me away, but knowing the story of the album – see interview on our webpage – I guess this album wasn’t meant to impress, wasn’t meant to be anything for which you need a fancy word to describe. It was meant o be genuine, and that it surely is. And it definitely triggers emotions. Plus it has good musicianship and production, so I will happily let it play several times once it’s out and until the two other items of the trilogy show up. I might even have a cup of coffee and just keep singing “coffee, coffee, coffee, I love my coffee”