Metal
Writer:
Josep Maria Llovera
Every new release from the prolific Canadian is a puzzle. Devin Townsend has long got us used to jumping between projects with wildly different directions, concepts and musical treatments. He can hand us a set of demolishing tracks just as easily as he can present us with a deranged space-rock opera.
I’ll admit that seeing the cover of this new record — a grey, misty landscape — I expected something ambient, along the lines of “Ghost” (2011) or “Casualties of Cool” (2014), that intimate gem he made in collaboration with Ché Aimee Dorval. But nope — from the very first chord of “Powernerd”, the title track, it’s clear this is heading into much heavier territory. A track that recalls the most classic metal, something like Mötley Crüe filtered through Motörhead. The song is a full-on empowerment anthem for the freakiness we’ve come to expect from him. A bridge between the metalhead and the nerd we all carry inside. Short and punchy, the kind of track that recharges your batteries.
That’s where the surprises end. On “Falling Apart”, the compositional aggression gets masked by the overproduction Devin has long accustomed us to. Those heavily treated vocals show up again, drowned in echo and delay until they get cumbersome. Before we know it, the Atari-style electronic notes of “Knuckledragger” are already playing, with a litany reminiscent of some track from the “Ziltoid” saga.
If you’d been missing a track with the epic treatment of “Empath” (2019), something like “Spirits Will Collide”, you’ll find it in “Gratitude”; with the melodiousness of his previous record, “Lightwork” (2022). At this point we can already guess this is a work looking back, not so much at his discography, as at his own personal drift and experience. The record shows a personal evolution. It draws on ’80s metal but confronts it without taking a nostalgia trip back. He paints it the way only he can, perhaps with too many grandiloquent effects, forced choirs and over-processing, which are also his trademarks, and territory where he feels comfortable and recognises himself.
On “Ubelia” we get to enjoy his warm voice without that excess processing he’s so fond of, though it does start piling on effects in the choruses. “Jainism” is the familiar exercise of combining calm passages with melodic bridges and aggressive sections. And “Younger Lover” is a ballad with surges of intensity that reminds me a lot (a lot) of “Why?” from “Empath” (2019). Despite how similar they are, if he played both in a live set, neither would feel redundant. The truth is that, on repeated listens, the ear starts adjusting to these bombastic treatments, or maybe they’re just not as exaggerated as he’s had us used to. The mid-tempo “Glacier” brings back that shared messianic epicness alongside relaxed landscapes and the odd guttural belch to mark its territory.
“Goodbye” has all the makings of the album’s closer (the title might give it away). Across a run of tracks, Townsend conveys the difficult mental process he’s been through since the pandemic, during which, despite expecting to get back to the old rhythm of tours, shows and writing (like almost everyone else), he’s instead faced personal problems, breakups, his son leaving home, ageing parents… A whole string of internal conflicts he tries to work through in musical form.
But then, as the actual closer, we get “Ruby Quaker”. Another musical prank from crazy old Devin, an entire ode to coffee set to very ’80s folk-country sounds. A fun little divertimento with a festive chorus, where he’s clearly enjoying himself singing, and it leaves that goofy smile on our lips.
“Powernerd” is an emotional work, tackling pain and loss with colour and light, and giving life’s disappointments a touch of euphoria — the good kind of euphoria we should be grateful for. It’s all bracketed between the first and last tracks, which act as a kind of frame around the record’s more emotional, transcendent material. As a final piece of advice: if you’re still not quite clicking with this man’s work, I’d recommend watching his YouTube videos. They’re worth a watch and help you understand the madman’s inner universe.