The Devin Townsend Band - Synchestra (2006)
One time, back in 2011, I asked Devin Townsend on his Formspring account "Hey Devin, is your lucky number seven? Do you believe in Heaven? What about your brother Kevin?" and he responded to me by saying "no and no, and i don't catch onto patterns" or something around those lines. His Formspring was pretty fucking great and provided great insight into his work, and it really sucks that it (as far as I know) wasn't archived, and thus, was lost to time. Ah well, if you had ever wondered what Devin's favorite Faith No More album is, it's "Angel Dust", surprise surprise, much like the most of us. What can I say? The man's got some damn great taste, and that shows in his music.. Most of the time, anyway. I guess that's the most we can really ask for, right? Anyhow, this album is no exception, but there's a bit of a bump in the road when it comes to maintaining a particularly strong presence in his discography, but hey, we'll get to that bridge when we cross it. As for now, just sit your stinky ass down and read my fucking word vomit.
Devin McMotherfucking Townsend definitely isn't short on ideas, with a good portion of this material tapping into the same vat of ideas that helped cook up "Ocean Machine: Biomech", "Infinity" and all that other good shit, and "Triumph" is some classic Hevy Devy (until that fuckwad Steve Vai comes in with a minute and a half long guitar wankery solo, what the fuck?) but this album manages to venture into other territory while retaining that Hevy Devy feel you've likely known to love, appreciate, and masturbate to, but don't shoot your unborn children into your hand just yet, because "Babysong" is gonna pressure you into having a fucking baby with your significant other who keeps hinting at wanting to have one. Man, can you imagine being on the fence about having a kid, hearing that song, choosing to have a child with your significant other out of pressure, and then completely fucking ruining your life by having a shitty, stupid human anchor attached to your finances for 18+ years, only to watch the exact same thing happen to them? It'd almost make you curse the song for its mere existence if it wasn't for how fucking great it is.
On this album, you even get some silly Devy with "Vampolka", "Vampira" and "Sunshine and Happiness"! You kinda get the whole shebang when it comes to Devin's music up to this point in his discography, aside from the blisteringly heavy shit (aside from a small bit in "Hypergeek", mind you), and it's really just packed with some pretty fuckin' good tunes with plenty to latch onto. I must admit.. The first time I listened to this album, I didn't really dig it, and it took like five listens for it to finally click with me to the point where I seriously felt like "how the fuck am I supposed to review this?", but this is some good shit. If you don't really feel it on the first listen, just please give it a while, mang, I understand that it, at times, feels a bit -too- accessible for a Devin Townsend release, which makes it feel a bit inaccessible in an odd way, but wait your initial feelings out. It's goofy, it's serious, it's beautiful, it's Devin Townsend, y'dig? Smoke some weed and get lost in the odd world of "Synchestra", where the unusual is the fuckin' usual. Did you notice that last line was a Lil Wayne lyric? No? Because it was from his feature on Weezer's "Can't Stop Partying (feat. Lil Wayne)" that you probably blocked out in a fit of rage after seeing what Rivers Cuomo has done to his career. Alright, understandable.
8/10
________________________________________________________
Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
