History Music / DevinTownsend

* StylisticSuck: Cryptic Coroner (from ''Cooked on Phonics'') is not only a piss-poor, laughable DeathMetal band, you can barely hear their song over the sound of the cackling audience.

* SadClown: Devin is always up for a laugh on stage and in interviews and also writes some pretty humorous when he wants to, but, like many entertainers, he also suffers from depression which has caused several CreatorBreakdowns throughout his career.

* ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/OceanMachine:Biomech Ocean Machine Biomech]]'' (1997)

* ''Empath'' (Releasing in March 2019)

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 with his upcoming release, ''Empath''.

* BoleroEffect: A big fan of this. "Praise The Lowered" is a particularly vicious example.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Noted in ''The Retinal Circus'' due to its eclectic songlist

* RockOpera: Several albums, most notably ''Cooked on Phonics'', ''Ziltoid'', ''Dark Matters'', and ''Deconstruction''.

** Although not explicitly a concept album, ''Empath'' 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.

* ConceptAlbum: For Devin, ''Ki'', ''Addicted'', ''Deconstruction'' and ''Ghost'' is a thematic suite based on delirious excess, facing the past, and release, with ''Deconstruction'' being the most "story" driven.
** ''Ziltoid the Omniscient'' and ''Dark Matters'' (from ''Z2'') tell a more literal story, though quite loosely in the former.

* ConceptAlbum: Many of his albums. The RockOpera examples (''Cooked on Phonics'', ''Ziltoid'', ''Dark Matters'', ''Deconstruction'') are the most obvious, but several others can be interpreted as loose examples with various themes connecting many of their songs. ''Empath'' in particular "is 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. 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.

** StrappingYoungLad's breakout track "S.Y.L."'s iconic pre-chorus:
--> ''I fu-cking hate you''
--> ''I fu-cking hate you''
--> ''I fu-cking hate you''

* EpicRocking: Mostly in his solo projects. In particular, ''Deconstruction'', which has a song ("The Mighty Masturbator") that's over 16 minutes - and that's not all. The B-side "Traestorz", an alternate version of the same song, is even longer at 19:21. His longest song as of 2019 is "Singularity", which is some 23:32 long, but divided into six tracks.

* LyricalDissonance: "Detox" is a harsh, noisy, upbeat, fast-paced song with aggressive vocals played primarily in the major key, but its lyrics are very personal, delving into emotional vulnerability, social anxiety, and an overall lack of self-control.

** He's still at it with ''Empath'', where at no point until the end of the disc does the music fade entirely out (though it comes close at a couple of points). The same goes for the demos on the bonus disc, though "Middle Aged Man" and "Total Collapse" is so faint that you'd have to have the volume turned up to ridiculous levels to hear it (it fades to about -60 dB, but doesn't fade out entirely).

* MushroomSamba: "Don't Know Why" ends with a lengthy quote from an Creator/AlanWatts essay entitled "The New Alchemy", which he wrote after being asked to take 100 grams of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and see if it created anything resembling a mystical experience.

* [[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''.

* ConceptAlbum: Many of his albums. The RockOpera examples (''Cooked on Phonics'', ''Ziltoid'', ''Dark Matters'', ''Deconstruction'') are the most obvious, but several others can be interpreted as loose examples with various themes connecting many of their songs. Even the ones that (probably) weren't consciously intended as examples often ''feel'' like cconcept albums due to their structure and the lyrical themes that link some of their songs.

* ExcitedShowTitle: Every track on ''Addicted''.
** "More!" from Epicloud.

* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: Subverted during The Retinal Circus. By having Jed Simon play [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hOWI0Ew_CAA#t=1228s "Detox"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hOWI0Ew_CAA#t=2825s "Love?"]] with the DTP.

* MoodWhiplash: A number of songs, particularly on ''Ki'', ''Deconstruction'', and ''Ziltoid''. Strapping Young Lad can be a source of this as well. It should be noted that Devin himself has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which can cause individuals to undergo a version of this trope in real life (though its effects are often misunderstood or exaggerated; in particular, the shifts in mood don't always occur instantaneously, although sufferers of the disorder may also experience mixed affective episodes in which symptoms of both mania and depression occur simultaneously; these episodes are when sufferers are likeliest to experience instantaneous mood whiplash).

* MoodWhiplash: A number of songs, particularly on ''Ki'', ''Deconstruction', and ''Ziltoid''.

* RereleaseTheSong: "Kingdom", taken from 2001's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrotHkcKle8 Physicist]]'' for 2012's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NraG_UFkkFY Epicloud]]''. Compared, the ''Epicloud'' version is pretty much a LargeHam.
** The same thing happens with the song "Hyperdrive", which started on ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5BqyluKkk0 Ziltoid the Omniscient]]'' and got an Anneke-led, pumped-up and happier-sounding update on ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf4_LB32M6Q Addicted]]''.

* SanitySlippageSong: The fast-paced, aggressive instrumentation, border-line manic vocals and personal nature of the lyrics in much of SYL's output make it possible to interpret a number of their songs as such though that likely wasn't the intent. "Detox", "Shitstorm" and "Underneath The Waves" come to mind.

** Parodied with "You Suck". There's no particular reason why you suck, you just do.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Very nearly all of the songs on many of the Devin Townsend Project albums do this, and much of his solo work does as well, especially ''Ocean Machine''

* EpicRocking: Mostly in his solo projects. In particular, ''Deconstruction'', which has a song ("The Mighty Masturbator") that's over 16 minutes - and that's not all. The B-side "Traestorz", an alternate version of the same song, is even longer at 19:21. His longest song as of 2019 is "Singularity", which is some 23 minutes long, but divided into six tracks.

* EpicRocking: Mostly in his solo projects. In particular, ''Deconstruction'', which has a song ("The Mighty Masturbator") that's over 16 minutes - and that's not all. The B-side "Traestorz", an alternate version of the same song, is even longer at 19:21.

* LyricalDissonance: "Detox" is a harsh, noisy, upbeat, fast-paced song with aggressive vocals played primarily in the major key but its lyrics are very personal delving into emotional vulnerability, social anxiety and an overall lack of self-control.
* LoudnessWar: Strapping Young Lad was a deliberate offender, invoking the trope to create as [[SensoryAbuse harsh and unrelenting a sound as possible]]. This has carried over to Townsend's solo work some as well; although he said around the release of ''Ki'', "I officially pull my hat out of the Loudness Wars", the material has still been somewhat clipped (although his releases are nowhere near the worst offenders anymore). He finally ''actually'' averted the Loudness War with ''Casualties of Cool'', which is a [=DR10=] master and sounds great.

* 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.

** "Juno", a B-side from the ''Contain Us'' boxset, is one to the Canadian music industry, who failed to recognise him or give him any credit for many years.

* ''Ocean Machine:'' ''Biomech'' (1997)

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.

[[folder:Discography as a Solo Artist (Devin Townsend Band and Devin Townsend Project)]]

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.

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.

There have always been two sides to Devin's career: His solo work, which tends to vary wildly in genre but always sticks close to ProgressiveMetal, and SYL. For the first decade of his work, the Strapping Young Lad stuff was doing way better than his solo stuff, 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, and in 2006 SYL ended, as a combination of burnout and a belief that SYL had served it's purpose. Devin's solo work meanwhile slowly gained popularity after the creation of the '''Devin Townsend Project''' and the reappraisal of his previous works have given him a surge in popularity among metal circles.

He is also 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.

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