Canadian heavy music artist Devin Townsend is set to release his forthcoming new album, EMPATH, on March 29, and today sees the launch of the second single from the album. Watch the video for Evermore below.
Read The Rockpit’s review of the album HERE.
Devin comments: “So with the release of Empath fast approaching, and people having had various chances to hear the album, the reactions are pretty much what I expected: Those interested in the more artistic and free form side of what I do really seem to like and understand it, and those looking for the more commercial or rocking side of what I do are maybe not so convinced 🙂
The initial plan was to release a more commercial song next (the sole one on the album, ‘Spirits Will Collide’) but the video we’ve been working on for that is hilariously ambitious and we needed a bit more time. Therefore, we opted to release this song, ‘Evermore’, as a way to bridge that gap. It’s slightly in the same vein as Genesis on some level I suppose, but a little more groovy and a bit less fractured in terms of structure.
The lyrics are not as much about a bored space cat crash landing on ‘planet fear’ in a literal sense, but I guess that’s easier to articulate with visuals at this stage than ‘yet another song about trying to work through one’s own mid-life bullshit to find some sense of self-actualization’, though perhaps with more time, it will resonate further with that. Thanks to Wayne, Josh and Miles for the tag team animations.
The drums on this particular track are all Anup Sastry, (who is a great guy who loves his dog) and the Elektra choir helps out a lot again. I’ve got a strange relationship with singing at this stage of my career so I really appreciated the support.
I encourage you, (if you like this sort of stuff, that is) to check it out in headphones. There’s a fair amount of candy in this song I spent a long time on. I think it’s streaming now too…
Thank you sincerely. The album is meant to be of some help in a weird way.
Dev”
Over the past few years, the success that Devin has slowly worked for has fortunately come with the power to control his own creative destiny. The recent successes with the DVD from a sold-out Royal Albert hall, or his 2012 ‘Retinal Circus’, or last year’s ‘Ocean Machine’ live DVD with the Orchestra and Choir of State Opera Plovdiv has put him in a position where with the new album ‘EMPATH’, he will once and for all define himself as a musical force outside of any particular genre classification.
On this album Devin has decided to see what would happen if all the styles that make up his current interests were finally represented in one place. To finally shake the fear of expectation, and just do what it is he was meant to do creatively, ‘EMPATH’, true to the name, is about allowing the audience a feeling for a variety of musical emotions. The musical dynamics represented on this single album are broad, challenging, and immense. To approach this sort of work with a long history of what makes heavy music ‘heavy’, allows this to be done with a type of power rarely heard.
Joining Devin on this album is Frank Zappa alumni Mike Keneally as music director, as well as Morgan Ågren (Mats And Morgan, Frank Zappa, Fredrik Thordendal), Anup Sastry (Monuments, Periphery), Samus Paulicelli (Decrepit Birth, Abigail Williams), Nathan Navarro, Elliot Desagnes, Steve Vai, Chad Kroeger, Anneke Van Giersbergen, Ché Aimee Dorval, Ryan Dhale and the Elektra Women’s Choir.
A bold statement with massive production values and dynamic, uncompromised musicality. This is a statement about not only pursuing creative freedom in a conservative scene, but also trying to show that heavy music is truly a valid musical tool.
EMPATH will be released on Limited 2 CD Digipak (including an entire disc of bonus material), Standard CD Jewelcase, Gatefold 180G 2LP Vinyl + CD + LP-booklet & as digital album.
PRE-ORDER EMPATH HERE
