Accelerated Evolution

by

The Devin Townsend Band

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With "Terria", Devin Townsend created an art-rock masterpiece. It's unbelievable depth, emotion, and originality has made it one of my all time favorite albums. With "Accelerated Evolution", Devin seems to be going for a more basic sound, sort of. What we have here is a more basic, hard rock/metal album. Most of the songs follow a basic format, and they're pretty damn catchy too. A few of them feature the wild, emotional guitar solos we heard on "Terria".

Lyrically, like all his albums, it's just about what's going on in his life. Musically, I'd say it's simpler, more straight forward and probably more catchy than "Terria". That's not a bad thing though, at least not in my opinion, as this is undeniably Devin's original work, and no one else sounds like him.

There are lots and lots of heavy riffs on this album. "Depth Charge" and "Suicide" have the some of the most killer metal riffs on the album (the latter has an awesome shred solo too) and "Sunday Afternoon" has a pretty groovy bridge riff. On the other hand, the vocals and some of the more melodic guitar riffs are impossibly catchy. I've found myself humming just about every song on this album. "Slow Me Down" and "Traveller" are particularly melodic and upbeat, and both awesome, rockin' songs.

The song he wrote for his wife, "Storm" is also worth special notice. It's pretty heavy, but melodic and powerful too. He pulls off some pretty extraordinary vocals around 3 and a half minutes in. Emotion!

There is one big epic, called "Away". It's primarily guitar based, there are 2 short vocal sections. The guitar playing focuses, in the beginning, on a arpeggio based riff, with some interesting time changes, and then takes on more melodies and different approaches to the same basic riff. After a few minutes, the band drops out (for the most part, there are various little cymbal hits and bass notes ringing) and Devin lets it all go...Some of the most emotional guitar playing I've ever heard. Definitely one of the coolest moments on the album.

Devin Townsend isn't very popular, which is a shame, because he's an incredibly original and creative artist, and overall, he loves what he does and plays with emotion. Each of his albums offers something different, so it's not quite fair to pick a favorite, but I would say this or "Terria" would be a great introduction to the world of Devin. So yeah, give him a chance, you might not regret it.

Not Devin's best. Devin is definitely a complex & creative musician and all of his stuff is not for everyone. To me, this album comes up short. I know many DT fans won't agree with this assessment, and that's cool. I am a fan of a lot of Devin's stuff, but on the whole, this one just doesn't do it for me.

The main problem I have is with the synths. And I love electronic music; I am just not a fan of how the synths were (over)used on this recording. I see what they were trying to do, create a grand, sweeping, epic sound. But every song seems to have this mid-range electronic whine behind it. All that does, in my opinion, is flatten the sound - every song on this album sounds flat and washed out and dull.

There are some respectable cuts on here with good riffs and vocals, namely 'Depth Charge', 'Random Analysis', 'Suicide', and 'Slow Me Down'. But none of these songs are among Devin's strongest & more memorable efforts, and, as I've mentioned, are washed out by the synths. 'Depth Charge' and 'Random Analysis' have some decent guitar work and are a couple of the heavier cuts on here. The opening of 'Random Analysis' has a beat that is very reminiscent of Metallica's pop-metal 'Enter Sandman'. 'Slow Me Down' is straight out of the 80's glam metal handbook, but with the Devin Townsend stamp on it. The other songs just don't stand out...

The only reason I don't award 2 stars for this thing is because of the inclusion of the Project EKO Bonus Disc which contains 3 mostly instrumental & electronic songs from Devin: 'Locate', 'Echo', and 'Assignable'. These 3 tracks are cool & chilled out, are better than anything on the main album, and save "Accelerated Evolution" from being largely forgettable. 3 stars for "Accelerated Evolution" with the bonus disc material...