Devin Townsend Project
Deconstruction

Devin Townsend left us in 2009 with an album ("Addicted") relatively calm both in terms of length (about 45 minutes instead of the usual hour or more of his previous works) and content, which settles on decidedly relaxed shores (at least by HevyDevy standards) and trends towards a more melodic metal compared to works like "Synchestra" and "Ziltoid The Omniscient", not to mention the albums of Strapping Young Lad. From there, two years of discographic silence during which Townsend focused on concluding that tetralogy produced under the name Devin Townsend Project, which began with "Ki" and the aforementioned "Addicted"; we then arrive at June 2011, when the Canadian artist releases the final two chapters simultaneously, "Ghost" and the album in question: "Deconstruction". Regarding the latter, Townsend has described it as his most complex and "heavy" work, making it an extremely ambitious project and thus highly anticipated by fans of the former leader of Strapping Young Lad.

Starting from this statement from our favorite madman: is "Deconstruction" his most ambitious album? I’d definitely say so; just look at the lineup of guests featured on this album (Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth and Paul Masvidal of Cynic, just to name two examples); if that’s not enough, the good HevyDevy, to demonstrate how much this work meant to him, even flew to Prague to record parts of the album with an orchestra, so I’d say the answer is simple in this case. Is this his heaviest and most complex album? Sort of. That is: "Deconstruction" is a work that certainly decisively distinguishes itself from its two predecessors, returning to that metal sound and that wall of sound so dear to Townsend, a wall of sound that is even elevated by the contribution of the aforementioned orchestra; a complex and heavy work yes, but not from the perspective of the still present violence ("City" and "Alien" remain unreachable peaks from that perspective) but rather from that of content.

Let me explain: if Townsend's solo works have common characteristics, they are definitely heterogeneity and crazy humor. Regarding the former quality, there are two schools of thought: some consider HevyDevy an absolute genius, an artist capable of juggling a thousand genres in a single album, sometimes in a single song (just think of the kilometer-long "The Mighty Masturbator": 16 and change minutes between death metal, orchestral inserts, progressive incursions, and even techno interludes), on the other hand, there are those who consider Townsend a gifted artist, but also decidedly prone to unnecessary long-windedness and narcissism that leads him to jump from one genre to another inconsiderately, almost to prove that he is an all-knowing figure in every form and manifestation of music. This "Deconstruction" stands as a sort of compromise between these two schools of thought because while the typical heterogeneity of HevyDevy is well present (as in the aforementioned "The Mighty Masturbator"), at the same time it is noticeable how the Canadian artist has worked to make the sound much more cohesive and the "transitions" between songs much more fluid, almost as if we were listening to a 70-minute-long suite; so yes, "Deconstruction" is the most complex album ever produced by Townsend, who manages to navigate with unparalleled naturalness between incongruously close genres without sounding forced or off-putting.

The other feature that makes Townsend a unique artist in his genre is his pronounced sense of humor, which often spills into the most extreme craziness: with this album, he recovers that theatricality that made "Ziltoid The Omniscient" great, pushing that humor and singing style to extremes never seen before (between screams and clean vocals, here HevyDevy delivers one of his best vocal performances): however, in "Deconstruction", it’s not about aliens needing black coffee to use as fuel for their spaceship, but rather something even more stupid: a man embarking on a journey to hell who receives from Lucifer himself the chance to learn the secrets of the universe, and is therefore offered a cheeseburger; the man, being vegetarian, finds himself forced to refuse the devil's offer, thus rendering his journey pointless. 

Can "Deconstruction" therefore be considered a turning point in HevyDevy’s career? A fresh start, the end of a chapter? All the elements are there, the ingredients that characterize the Canadian musician's music are entirely present and even taken to the extreme: what Townsend has produced is undoubtedly an "excessive" work (whether positively or negatively depending on your stance on him), as if he wanted to send us into overdose being aware that "Deconstruction" would be the last work in which he would use a certain type of sound. The atmosphere of conclusion is certainly there, at least regarding the Devin Townsend Project tetralogy, which as an epitaph offers us 70 minutes of disturbing, abrasive, hilarious, and crazy music, a journey through extreme metal, death, progressive, techno, and symphonic music. At the end of all this, after saying this is the most ambitious and complex album ever made by Townsend, after analyzing and "deconstructing" it, we can finally arrive at the final reckoning: is "Deconstruction" a successful album? Has "Deconstruction" repaid two years of waiting? Is "Deconstruction" worthy of standing alongside other HevyDevy masterpieces, if not surpassing them? The answer is yes, definitely.

Let's finish this!