Review Summary: Heavy Devy’s Opus?
Consider the vast array of musical genres available for immediate enjoyment: now, picture if you will, an artist so brazenly in tune with his own talents and desires, that not only does he dabble in experimenting with them on occasion, he manages to create entire tracks and albums by way of forcing them to work together. But instead of yielding a product like the combining of like magnet poles, Devin Townsend manages not only to create music, and an album, so expressive of his tastes and prior experiences, he generates a listening experience that cannot be ignored, that can’t be classified, that just can not be turned off. In releasing
Empath, Heavy Devy has proven (again) to the unsuspecting world that he is a true musical artist, a man whose skills are as obvious to himself as they are to the listener.
Take, for example, two tracks from Empath: the SYL-esque
Hear Me and its follow up
Why? The former pummels its audience with double bass and blast beats, frenetic guitar riffs, and the patented Devy wail. Almost having a laugh at how talented he is, Devin flaunts his impeccable singing talents and penchant for just having fun with the mostly vocally driven
Why? as the follow up. It’s his way of breaking the 4th wall and looking at his fans, saying “don't you wish you could be this good?”
Experimentation and fun are at every corner of this record: rooster calls, babies crying, an air horn, and a catchy head bobbing riff populate
Borderlands, while lead single
Genesis and final track
Singularity manage to be a microcosm of the entire album, complete with pop beats, blast beats, operatic singing, and Devy having fun, the latter over the course of 23 minutes.
Where Devin will always shine is as a lyricist, and his finest work on Empath is second single
Spirits Will Collide, a profoundly uplifting track that unapologetically tells its recipient
don’t you forget that you are perfect and
remember the flame in your heart burns strong. It's catchy, it’s powerful, it’s flawless. In short, it’s Devy. Even those fans often frustrated due to the overwhelming use of choral arrangements infringing on the amount of singing from the man himself will not be upset with this track: the opening chorus segueing into Devin's documented brilliance as a vocalist serves as the ultimate backstop, lifting its listener up in the opening moments and never letting go.
If there is to be a point marked against Devin, it's more in the vein of minor complaints: two tracks, the opener
Castaway and penultimate track
Requiem do nothing to push the record forward, other than give some easy listening while prepping for what’s to come, while
Sprite, by itself a somewhat meandering track mostly focusing on Devin's vocals, feels like a song fit for a Winnie the Pooh film, until the realization, in hindsight, kicks in that this track immediately precedes the aural assault of
Hear Me, as if Devin wanted his listeners’ guard down before he pummeled them. Again, the man likes to have fun and bring us on a journey:
Sprite is not meant to be thrown in a playlist by itself; it’s meant to be absorbed then shocked out of your system.
For what was put into this record physically, mentally, monetarily, Devin has crafted his opus: a true experience in every facet of the term, an album that cannot be graded after just one listen, because one listen does not allow for one to appreciate all its nuances, its little moments, its moments that can cause a listener to look at their music device and think “what the hell is this” with a giant smile on their face.
