History Music / DevinTownsend

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Strapping Young Lad was definitely this, containing elements of DeathMetal, ThrashMetal, IndustrialMetal, and ProgressiveMetal. His solo output takes this much further, with even his heavier albums not necessarily falling into a single category. ''Ocean Machine'' features very prominent shoegaze/dream pop elements especially in the production; ''Infinity'' was more avant-garde and psychedelic; ''Addicted'', ''Epicloud'', and ''Sky Blue'' are very pop-influenced; ''Deconstruction'' harkens back to SYL with even more bizarreness; yet it was all still within his sound. Then there's the extremely eclectic ''Ki'', and of course ''Ghost'' and ''Casualties of Cool'' which are his unique experiments with New Age and country music, respectively. Come ''Empath'', he's begun changing genres ''mid-song'' and still have it work.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** Noted in ''The Retinal Circus'' due to its eclectic songlist.
** "Info Dump", a HarshNoise track, stands out from the rest of Strapping Young Lad's discography.

* DreadlockRasta: Combining this with BaldOfAwesome gives you Townsend's most iconic hairstyle, the almighty Skullet.

* BaldOfAwesome: He's awesome and has no hair. What more do you need?
* BaldOfEvil: Played for laughs with Ziltoid.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Devin Townsend has made music that covers every possible degree. Most of ''Ki'' is 1-3 (reaching about 8 in a song or two) while most of SYL's songs could easily qualify as 10 ("Rape Song", "Detox", "All Hail The New Flesh") or 11 ("Shitstorm", "Oh My Fucking God").
** Rule of thumb: Devin Townsend Band is 7-8, Strapping Young Lad is 10 to 11. Ziltoid, which is best described as a fusion of the two styles, falls at about a 9 depending on the song. The Devin Townsend Project is all over the scale - ''Ki'' is mostly 1-3 with a few moments reaching as high as 7 or 8, ''Addicted'' is mostly 6-7, ''Ghost'' is a 1, and ''Deconstruction'' ramps up from a 2 in its opening moments to much higher scores fairly quickly, with the last song being a solid 10. ''Epicloud'', ''Sky Blue'', and ''Transcendence'' are probably mostly in 6-7 territory as well, but can vary - in particular, "Lessons" is probably a 1.
** ''Ocean Machine'' spans from the lowest of 1's to a solid 8 with "Regulator" and "Bastard"
** Special notice must be given to Strapping Young Lad's "Info Dump", which is essentially a HarshNoise track; it arguably qualifies as the heaviest track in his discography, and a case could be made that it [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale surpasses 11]]. It actually starts out pretty quietly as a case of NothingIsScarier, but the end is so hellish that it probably can't qualify as as anything less than an 11.

* FiveManBand: His solo band
** TheLeader: Devin
** TheLancer: Beav
** TheSmartGuy: Dave
** TheBigGuy: Ryan
** [[SixthRanger Fifth Ranger]]: Mike

* [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fangirl]]: Anneke Von Giersbergen got the job as vocalist for the Devin Townsend Project by sending Devin a video of herself singing "Hyperdrive" from ''Ziltoid''. She would later sing it on ''Addicted''.

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 The Wildhearts. 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.

* ''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 soundtrack

* ''Lightwork'' - 2021

* ''The Retinal Circus'' (2013) (Live album)

* ''Upcoming Album'' - 2021

DeadpanSnarker tendencies mixed in for good measure. Generally PlayedForLaughs, especially when Ziltoid is involved.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Too many to count for Devin.

* {{Adorkable}}: His fun loving, child-like personality on stage is almost "D'awwwww" worthy at times. He can also come across as a nerdy and rather shy person in interviews and off the stage. Plus, how could you not love [[http://socalmusictoday.com/wp-content/themes/newspro/timthumb.php?src=http://socalmusictoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/IMG_2030.jpg&q=90&w=634&zc=1 that face?]]

* {{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 with {{Adorkable}} and DeadpanSnarker tendencies mixed in for good measure. Generally PlayedForLaughs, especially when Ziltoid is involved.

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 The Wildhearts. 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; which sold poorly, but was enough to get him work for Century Media Records, where he managed to put together a more stable lineup and go on tour, where his work pushed 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.

He is known for his epic, sweeping prog metal walls of sound that both crush, inspire, and in general set a mood for his compositions, and is completely bonkers in a MadArtist sort of way and has a real affinity for the RuleOfFunny, qualities that have earned him comparisons to Music/FrankZappa.

* OldShame: Due to his compounding mental issues and drug use at the time and the effects they had on the material he was writing, he seems to regard everything he recorded and released between City and Terria to be this, as evidenced by the episodes of the Devin Townsend Podcast concerning those albums

* ManOfAThousandVoices: One of few metal vocalists to achieve this status, along with [[Music/DirEnGrey Kyo]], Music/MikePatton, and [[Music/EnterShikari Roughton Reynolds]].

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. 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; which sold poorly, but was enough to get him work for Century Media Records, where he managed to put together a more stable lineup and go on tour, where his work pushed 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.

Meanwhile, 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. He decided to continue on his own (and with guest artists) with his March 2019 release; ''Empath''.

* WordSaladLyrics: Especially the DTP.

* SuddenlyVoiced: Inverted in the case of the Planet Smasher. In ''Ziltoid the Omniscient'', he has his own song and lines of dialogue. Fast-forward 14 years later to ''Dark Matters'', and his only line written in the album's booklet is, "ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

[[quoteright:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him during his DTP/DTB years]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/devintownsendprojectdevintownsend2009_5572.jpg]][[/labelnote]]
[[quoteright:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him during his SYL years]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/devy_9.png]][[/labelnote]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/devintownsendprojectdevintownsend2009_5572.jpg]]

Meanwhile, 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 '''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. He decided to continue on his own (and with guest artists) with his March 2019 release; ''Empath''.