Devy time baby.

Holy cow looks like a long album

Love Devin but he's def been in a decline the last decade (expected, he is getting on). Hyping this as something hes been working on for 10 years does set some expectations. was so-so on the single, def feels likes intended to be heard in the flow of the album. some of the orchestral moments have me worried about the goof level, but the heavier bits were good

You aren’t wrong. Too much goofy music

I only know Mr. Townsend from that one INCREDIBLE live performance of "deadhead". This song was not at all what I was expecting lol.

Really weird choice for a single but I'm always excited for anything this guy does even if it's mid lol

This will be amazing.

idk if I'm unimpressed by the music or if I'm just not into prog metal anymore. I watched the live performance and had mixed feelings, like my 20 year old self who was hyped for Deconstruction would probably dig this.

He's the musical equivalent of James Cameron to me and this is his Avatar sequels. Nobody can do it like him but he's also locked away in his own world.

Haven't been much into Devins music since Empath. Lightwork was ok, Powernerd was pretty lackluster and Puzzle/Dnuggles was a joke. I'll definitely still give this a listen, but my expectations are pretty low.

I’m incredibly excited for this! I absolutely loved the performance he did in the Netherlands.

Didn't he also release a Patreon exclusive album a few months ago?

wow that was, uh, one of the worst things ive ever heard

Yeah it's a weird choice for a single. I re-listened the live concerts quite a couple of times and it gets better with each listen. I think you can compare it most with Empath, though this has probably more cohesion and might be better?

Ive been on a Devin decline as well since basically empath. The dudes amazing but nothing he really does these days really captures and holds my interest. Devins basically finished all his main quests and is now doing whatever he wants in his own little world. He certainly has earned that but boy his new material is exhausting as is a 24 track monster new album

i need city vol 2

It sounds like he took all the weird circus-y parts of BTBAM but with none of the fun parts

I've been obsessed with Devin since I was in high school, which was over 20 years ago now but holy shit this was boring. Why the hell did he release an intro track as a single?

I fell off a bit with him as well. He was a different beast before his hiatus / 2 year break post Ziltoid. His process definitely changed. Shuttering SYL, and forming DTP. The first 4 planned DTP records were great as was Casualties of Cool, but he definitely slipped into being repetitive with Epicloud, Sky Blue, Z2 being repeats of an older sound, ditto lightworker. Ofc snuggles & the puzzle were mediocre there too. Powernerd possibly his most predictable straight forward record.

Just finished this abum, at 5 am in Australia, need another listen before putting down a proper rating. It's extremely grandiose. Deconstruction is probably the best comparison, it's that record mixed with Empath. Some truly gorgeous parts, like Covered by Causes which calls back to Ki in some regards. You know what to expect with Devin by now, so those extremely over the top crescendos with all the BOM BoM BOM bits of his voice, guitars, drums all at once come in time to time. The orchestra is much less prevalent in this compared to the live streamed version. Especially in Lexin.

fuckin STOKED

I will say, it is so extremely over the top & weird that it can be a bit of a clusterfuck of a listen. Sometimes I'm not sure if there was really a proper flow to the ideas, or whether it was a jumble of insane ideas that all kind of collide. For example the song a Life in Review sounds SYL esque in its wild momentary insanity before a very abrupt shift to ambient electronic ala something akin to Solar Fields to begin the next passage.

So basically Empath part II huh?

“Just finished this abum, at 5 am in Australia, need another listen before putting down a proper rating. It's extremely grandiose. Deconstruction is probably the best comparison, it's that record mixed with Empath”. Sign me up

Empath part II here for that

Empath is my favorite Devy album so I’ll take it. I’ve been very excited for the prospect of an orchestral album since he first started teasing the idea. Deconstruction is my other favorite album of his and I loved the live rendition of the album, so I’m ecstatic to finally get to hear a studio version.

So hype for this.

I am not going to bother with this, also the length is insane

Deconstruction and Empath are my fave devys but just looking at the tracklist scares me

Yeah, the tracklist is a concern, and I would say many people will dislike the 1-2 minute tracks. This is what really makes the album a bit cluster fuck esque as I mentioned prior.

My favorite tracks were

Covered By Causes a ballad duet, symphony, keys, acoustic swells & rises, horn section towards the middle, at times I think of "Streets of Whiterun" from Skyrim with this song. Towards the end it picks up with some riffs, it's like a song off Ki taken in this direction.

Lexin. This song is weird, groovy, electronic admixed rock. The vocals are a little bizarre here. The effects on their voices are digitally altered. There's some whimsy too. This might sound insane, but it wouldn't be a song out of place following up a track like Nobody by Avenged Sevenfold. I'm sure people will go, WHAT? Reading that, but it's true. Could see people loving it, or hating it. I absolutely love this one, especially the 2nd half.

Orion. This starts with a fart sound. I wish it didn't honestly. Overall, a rising, uplifting very Empath sounding song. Bouncing riffs accented with some glittery symphony, groovy towards minute 2, with a lot of changing synths, horns, choirs, percussive elements, lead guitar bits, glitchy sounds, gets darker & heavier in it's second half.

Intermission. Ambient electronic. The entire song is ambience. Beautiful as hell though.

Stained Hearts. This is the Addicted esque song of the set. Anneke is back. This song is pretty, gorgeous vocals.

My first listen was on a pair of active KEF bookshelf speakers, 2nd listen was through a Sennheiser HD800S. Have not heard a Dolby Atmos version yet, which I'm pretty sure he was aiming for.

"Orion. This starts with a fart sound."

Ah a Deconstruction throwback, I see.

Devins a super talented dude but i just cant get into any of his stuff since Empath. I hope everyone who listens loves it though

@Ectier Same for me, unfortunately, and I don't think The Moth will change that. I feel like he's been stuck in the same spot since even before Empath despite some efforts to branch out. It's sad to loose connection with an artist you used to admire, but I also can't force myself to pretend that it's still there.

Its just not my thing really, he has enough good material in his catalogue so idm if he just ambles around and does whatever he wants.

Glad to see it's not just me that'd been struggling with Dev since Empath (which I loved). He's gone from the only live act I would ever go see to not being interested when he's playing locally.

I was excited by The Moth, and I think bits of it are really good - but it just completely fails to have any songs. I know it's a "Prog Metal Concept Album" but even Scenes from a Memory had songs instead of just stuff happening. There's not a huge amount to grab onto and a lot of it is just ***LOUD ORCHESTRA NOISES***.

This is only after a first listen though, and I really don't think this an album where a "first listen" is going to be the "best listen".

24 tracks is an insane length even with interludes, this thing is a behemoth.

24 tracks but like half of them are less than 2 minutes. The main version is shorter than the last Cryptic Shift album (which was also too long, but that was more of a variety issue.)

It’s only 69 mins I believe. Completely digestible, especially since it’s broken up by an intermission. I’ve been following this project for intently for a long time so I knew exactly what I was getting into and I was very excited for it. I watched the live Moth and had ripped audio so I’ve been sitting with these songs for a long while now and I absolutely love the studio version. I knew very early on this wasn’t going to be a fan favorite, but I do hope long time Devy fans give it a couple listens if they care, because it’s definitely his best since Empath and a huge highlight to me personally.

Album is mediocre sadly.

Smells like I gotta make a review 👃🏻

Do it!!!!

devin needs to bring back strapping

Empath is better imo but I’m enjoying my second listen of this wya more than my first listen

I just came to this page to bitch that no one was talking about this today and was gonna post on the empath page, glad to see this got bumped

I'll see you on the Empath page Luc 👉