History Music / DevinTownsend

* ''Deconstruction'' (2011)

* {{Deconstruction}}: Magnificently averted with the album of the same name. You would expect that the title and Townsend's [[WordOfGod statement about being the heaviest album he's ever made since SYL]] (after the lighthearted, poppy nature of the previous ''Ki'' and ''Addicted'') would have him playing some of the darkest tunes he's ever come to mind (since this album is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin to the other two). By listening to the music you realize since track 1 the score is made of guitar riffs, circus organs and other bizarre comedic sounds. And the lyrics? A dead man talking with Satan about his past life on a CrapSaccharineWorld like they were HeterosexualLifePartners since the beginning of times. ComedicSociopathy ensues of course. Really, this album's concept and sound is like the Deconstruction OF the Deconstruction itself.
** Which doesn't stop the record from being awesome, though. Something you'd expect considering there's musicians like [[Music/{{Opeth}} Mike Akerfeldt]], [[Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} Floor]] [[Music/AfterForever Jansen]], [[Music/{{Meshuggah}} Fredrik Thordendal]], {{Music/Gojira|Band}}'s Joe Duplantier, {{Music/Cynic}}'s Paul Masvidal, and {{Music/Emperor}}'s Music/{{Ihsahn}} among other ones.

* BreatherEpisode: The upcoming ''Snuggles'' is intended to be one for ''The_Puzzle''

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: While it shows in some of his music (the album "Deconstruction" comes to mind), his eccentricity and oddball remarks are major part of his appeal as a live performer
* DeadpanSnarker tendencies mixed in for good measure. Generally PlayedForLaughs, especially when Ziltoid is involved.

** Happens a lot with the song "Shitstorm" from Alien.

** Which doesn't stop the record from being awesome, though. Something you'd expect considering there's musicians like [[Music/{{Opeth}} Mike Akerfeldt]], [[Music/{{Nightwish|Band}} Floor]] [[Music/AfterForever Jansen]], [[Music/{{Meshuggah}} Fredrik Thordendal]], {{Music/Gojira}}'s Joe Duplantier, {{Music/Cynic}}'s Paul Masvidal, and {{Music/Emperor}}'s Music/{{Ihsahn}} among other ones.

** The ''ENTIRE'' Lucky Animals video (unofficial), in which Devin does a stupid silly dance without even cracking a smile!

* EvilIsHammy:
** The War Princess in the sequel, ''Dark Matters''.
%% ** '''Ziltoid'''.

** Outright subverted these days since he's still a very energetic LargeHam performer but his musical output is far lighter than his pre-The New Black work. Also he's been keeping his head bald these days.

* FollowTheLeader and FountainOfExpies: {{Discussed|Trope}}/InUniverse example in "Planet of the Apes", in which Devin mentions, "We all rip off Music/{{Meshuggah}}."

* PissTakeRap: "Two Turntables and a Mike St-Jean"

* ScareChord: Two songs from Strapping Young Lad's self-titled, "Dire Consequences" and "Bring On the Young"

* SelfDeprecation: Frequently throughout his live performances. Regularly introduces the solo from ''Life'' as "The shittiest guitar solo I ever wrote."

** Notably in ''Deconstruction'', where he gives attention to the Djent-y riff of the song by yelling out "We all rip off Meshuggah!"

* SuccessThroughInsanity: Oh yes. Having lots of [[CreatorBreakdown breakdowns]] during his career and being able to survive through every one of them? Check. [[CursedWithAwesome Channeling his mental problems torward his music and making them awesome]]? Check. (Seemingly) getting rid of his drug problems and some mental illnesses and finding out his songs can be even more awesome when his mind is clearer? Check. And showing us that's true? Check. Devin Townsend had a career of 16 albums he produced himself, including Ziltoid The Omniscient, on which he has done almost EVERYTHING, including the 5+ voices featured, and more are on the way. Oh, and he has bipolar disorder.
** His set up for the ''Quarantine Concert series'' takes the cake: Setting up four different cameras, including one strapped to a broken desk fan that shows the entire room, and one that is intended to simulate watching the concert while headbanging by rigging it up to another piece of broken hardware. Oh, and he built all of it ''himself'' without much guidance, all to help fund major healthcare initiatives in Canada, the UK, and the US.

* ''The_Puzzle''/''Snuggles'' - 2021. Less an album and more an enormous multimedia project, including a Graphic Novel, an ''actual'' novel, a short film, and a pair of soundtracks on top of it.
* ''Lightwork'' - 2022

Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian musician and producer. He got his official start after years of toiling in the Pacific Northwest with Music/SteveVai in the 1993 album ''Sex and Religion'', where he was the vocalist, and as a touring guitarist with Music/TheWildhearts. However, he struggled mightily to get any of his own work put together and pressed onto records, and was becoming increasingly furious with how the music industry was treating him, which coalesced into the first '''Strapping Young Lad''' album. The album sold poorly, but was enough to get Devin work for Century Media Records. In this time, he managed to put together a more stable lineup and go on tour, while pushing the limits of DeathMetal, IndustrialMetal, and ProgressiveMetal all at the same time. But each record would come at a price, as Devin would routinely do mentally toxic things to himself in order to stay in the right frame of mind to keep making records that angry, and in 2006 SYL ended, as a combination of burnout and a belief that SYL had served it's purpose.

At the same time, Townsend had years worth of written material he wasn't able to publish before, and finally was able to put a solo record together that kickstarted the style of music he's been more personally inclined towards in the record '''[[Music/OceanMachineBiomech Ocean Machine: Biomech]]''', which was intended to be it's own project, but eventually became what he'd consider an "aspect" of his work, and has since made most of his solo work under his name or a band holding his name. He first started with '''The Devin Townsend Band''', which essentially was a prototype for what would become his first thematic quadrilogy; '''The Devin Townsend Project''', starting in 2009. The Project concluded in 2018, when Devin felt he had done everything he needed to with it. He decided to continue on his own (and with guest artists) with his March 2019 release; ''Empath''.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIxPUPWVq8 music video]] for "Evermore", features a Vargshroom, the mascot for WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} member Joel, on the cat astronaut's phone. The music video was made by Zeurel, a web animator known for making fan content based on Joel's streams.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIxPUPWVq8 music video]] for "Evermore", animated by web animator Zeurel, features a [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Vargshroom]] on the cat astronaut's phone.

* ''Addicted'' (2009) [[/index]](guest starring [[Music/TheGathering Anneke van Giersbergen]])[[index]]

[[index]]

* ''Z2'' (2014)[[note]]The album title is actually intended to be written with a superscript 2 and is pronounced ''Zed squared'', but using the superscript 2 character currently causes a glitch in the wiki[[/note]] (A double album produced as two different albums packaged together)

* ''Addicted'' (2009) (guest starring [[Music/TheGathering Anneke van Giersbergen]])

* ''Epicloud'' (2012) (also guest starring [[Music/TheGathering Anneke van Giersbergen]])
* ''Z2'' (2014) (DistinctDoubleAlbum consisting of ''Sky Blue'' and ''Music/DarkMatters''; the album title is actually intended to be written with a superscript 2 and is pronounced ''Zed squared'', but using the superscript 2 character currently causes a glitch in the wiki)

* ''Ki'' (2009)

* EvilIsHammy: '''Ziltoid'''.

* ExcitedShowTitle: Every track on ''Addicted''. Note that although the first nine songs have one exclamation point, the final track, "Awake!!", has two.
** "Ziltoidia Attaxx!!!" from ''Ziltoid the Omniscient''.
** "More!" from ''Epicloud''.
** "Singularity - Here Comes the Sun!" from ''Empath''.

* FakeBand: The main characters of ''Cooked on Phonics.''

* ''LiveAlbum Ocean Machine in Plovdiv'' (2018)

No relation to [[Music/TheWho Pete]], by the way.

* ''[[LiveAlbum No Sleep 'Till Bedtime: Live in Australia]]'' (1998)

* ''[[LiveAlbum Official Bootleg]]'' (1999)

* ''[[Music/ZiltoidTheOmniscient Ziltoid the Omniscient]]'' (2007)

* ''Contain Us'' (2011, collection of the above four albums plus two bonus discs of outtakes/demos and, in some editions, an additional bonus 10" EP; ''Deconstruction'' and ''Ghost'' are also remastered)
* ''[[LiveAlbum Unplugged]]'' (2011)
* ''[[LiveAlbum By a Thread - Live in London 2011]]'' (2012, five-CD/four-DVD live album)

* ''[[LiveAlbum The Retinal Circus]]'' (2013) - A live album and also Live-DVD release with a..."loose" story attached.

* ''[[LiveAlbum Ziltoid Live at the Royal Albert Hall]]'' (2015)

* ''[[LiveAlbum Ocean Machine in Plovdiv]]'' (2018)

* ''Quarantine Project'' (2020) - An online series of songs that was designed to help keep the musicians he paid for the North American ''Empath'' tour stay busy and to help folks take their mind off of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. All of them uploaded to his youtube account.
* ''Devolution Series'' - A periodic set of LiveAlbums released during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
** ''1: Acoustically Inclined'' - 2021, recordings of Devin's acoustic set in Leeds from 2019.
** ''2: Galactic Quarantine'' - 2021, only very technically a LiveAlbum, as it was recorded with individual musicians against a green screen and turned into an online concert, and then later released officially.

** The ''Quarantine Project'' features a cover of the ''Vengaboys'' of all things.

** Even the albums that (probably) weren't consciously intended as examples often ''feel'' like concept albums due to their structure and the lyrical themes that link some of their songs. For instance, ''Empath'', although not explicitly a concept album, can still be interpreted as one; it's "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," according to the official press release for the album. Wiki/ThatOtherWiki's page for the album (as of this writing) actually claims it's his first album since 2006's ''The Hummer'' not to qualify as one, but it's not clear what their reasoning is.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Magnificently averted with the album of the same name. You would expect that the title and Townsend's [[WordOfGod statement about being the heaviest album he's ever made since SYL]] (after the lighthearted, poppy nature of the previous ''Ki'' and ''Addicted'') would have him playing some of the darkest tunes he's ever come to mind (since this album is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin to the other two). By listening to the music you realize since track 1 the score is made of guitar riffs, circus organs and other bizarre comedic sounds. And the lyrics? A dead man talking with Satan about his past life on a CrapSaccharineWorld like they were HeterosexualLifePartners since the beginning of times. ComedicSociopathy ensues of course. Really, this album's concept and sound is like the Deconstruction [[UpToEleven OF the Deconstruction itself]].

** Taken UpToEleven [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/Dark_Matters_%28Album_Cover%29.jpg on the cover]] of ''Dark Matters'' from ''Z2''. [[spoiler:The Planet Smasher is that furry blue rabbit-like creature near Ziltoid.]]

** "Don't Know Why" takes this UpToEleven. It sounds like the recording may have been digitally sped up.

* SharpDressedMan: Since forming the Devin Townsend Project he's been doing some of his live performances with more formal clothing. Most notable during the [[LiveAlbum Retinal Circus]] which also added a [[NiceHat top hat]] while contrasted by his bandmates who are wearing more casual/metal clothing.

** Which doesn't stop the record from being awesome, though. Something you'd expect considering there's musicians like [[Music/{{Opeth}} Mike Akerfeldt]], [[Music/{{Nightwish}} Floor]] [[Music/AfterForever Jansen]], [[Music/{{Meshuggah}} Fredrik Thordendal]], {{Music/Gojira}}'s Joe Duplantier, {{Music/Cynic}}'s Paul Masvidal, and {{Music/Emperor}}'s Music/{{Ihsahn}} among other ones.