Devin Townsend Band -- Synchestra Review
Posted by Evocator Manes on 04.28.2006
As thickly layered and richly textured as any (musical) jungle out there.
Devin Townsend Band Synchestra
2006
SPV/Inside Out
8.5
This albums starts off with an incredible acoustic guitar track, very nice and mellow, which of course doesn't last as it gets bombed to shreds on Hypergeek and the album takes off from there and never looks back. While always technically strong in production, songwriting and arrangement, Devin Townsend has become of the most insanely talented musicians in history. He has always been strong vocally, with his unique stylings, but he tended to constantly go out towards the edge. He is starting to use dynamics to great effect in his delivery and it is making him much more well-rounded. Townsend primarily receives accolades for those things, but the enclosed DVD also demonstrates how excellent of a guitarist he is also.
Townsend wanted to release the DVD as a stand-alone, but the record label didn't think it was strong enough. Even though the production is dead on, the label is right. The DVD, titled by Townsend previous to the release of Synchestra as Safe Zone, features a studio tour, the video for Storm and an in-studio live performance of a huge cross section of various non-SYL songs. The tracklisting is not listed on the credits, but is as follows: Truth from Infinity, Regulator and Life from Ocean Machine: Biomech, Earth Day from Terria and Storm, Deadhead, Slow Me Down and the front half of the Away/Deep Peace Medley from Accelerated Evolution, reviewed elsewhere here, with the second half being from Terria. Unlike the other in-studio DVD released this year, by In Flames on Come Clarity (also reviewed elsewhere here), this disc is not shot in stunning black and white and does not feature the band's vocalist lip-synching along to the somewhat average studio album. It would have been probably cooler if it did feature those songs, as Synchestra is a very accomplished disc and the other albums the songs are taken from suffer in comparison, particularly if one listens to Synchestra before watching Safe Zone. In any case, this DVD should cement the case for Townsend's massive skill as a musician and particularly as an ace guitarist.
The music on the CD is some of the most adventurous and daring of Townsend's career, featuring heavy keyboards and a cascading piano scale amidst the heavy metal riffing madness of Babysong. Townsend wears his obsessions on his sleeve and it is clear he is pre-occupied with the idea of having children and becoming a father. The musical insanity takes off into outer space from there, both lyrically and musically with the Alice Cooper/Ventures musical romp on Vampolka and the heavily muted and plodding Pixillate. The majority of the lyrics seem to have unclear subjects, but are all informed by Townsend's resident quirkiness.
The packaging is right on the money here, with the ultra-clean lyre-looking logo of the band propped up against the softer digital lines of a tree trunk for the front cover. Lyrics are fully reprinted, along with photos of each band member to his own page, all set in a jungle. The gate fold depicts a mist coming down and obscuring a series of mountains, presumably at the forest edge. The impression is one of earthiness, which is also somewhat of a Townsend hallmark/obsession, at least when not in SYL mode. Credits are also fully present along with one of the brilliant and touching messages from a musician to his wife from Devin to his other half, Tracy.
The 411: While other bands are resting on their laurels or sleeping on past successes, Devin Townsend is creating entire symphonies, throwing together slabs of metal, progressive rock, acoustic guitar work, piano and whatever else is seemingly laying around. That it all works is a given, that it all works so fantastically and keeps progressing at such an astonishing rate is more amazing. Townsend is a human treasure and a marvel to behold and his is that rare story of the artist who is gaining appreciation while continuing to improve as an artist. Highly recommended.
