Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction (2011)
I, like a lot of people, was very hyped for this album to come out. In fact, if you'll remember correctly, it actually leaked on Mother's Day '11, and when my mom was fully distracted by visiting family, I sat down in a recliner, iPod in hand, and journeyed into the darkness that is "Deconstruction", home of the insane, the strange, and the vegemetarians. I remember sitting there and being pretty blown away by Devin Townsend's ability to slip right back into heavier music while not rehashing what he had previously done, incorporating guest musicians on this album in such a seamless and fluid way that felt completely natural.. To further reiterate, I was fucking blown away, dude! What the fuck?! This album feels like fucking fanfiction! Just look up the featured guest musicians on Wikipedia, you fuck!!
Ah, I'm getting old and too far ahead of myself. Where was I? Oh, yes, writing a review for an album that a friend of mine deemed "girl-repellent" back in the day, unaware that we were naturally repellent of females because we didn't take care of ourselves whatsoever. Before this album dropped, I (and a lot of other people) thought it was going to be like Devin Townsend returning to Strapping Young Lad's musical styling by himself to make something even heavier, and then I remember a lot of people getting pissed that it didn't sound like "City", "Alien" or whatever else, even if I loved it. Truth is, this is -not- a return to Strapping Young Lad and it never attempts to portray itself as being. Instead of being a callback, this album is like a really fucking demented circus of sounds that Devin Townsend is orchestrating from a watchtower, bringing in musical guests that -fit- (that's the keyword, because no appearances on here feel forced) the music, if even for a short amount of time, to show what influence and respect Devin Townsend still has in the metal community, to be able to call upon pretty much whoever the fuck he wants to come lay down vocals.
Let it be known.. This album is pretty fucking overwhelming. I'd go as far to say that this might just be (at least up to this point in his discography) the most intensely musically textured album in Devin Townsend's discography, with so much shit going on in the music at pretty much every moment, with all of the small little details combining with the heavy, brooding riffs to sound like a brick wall of sound (yes, I am aware that this is a thing, yes.) colliding into you at 1000MPH, completely liquefying your insides, but what's really awesome about the music on here is that despite being epic (I rarely use this word due to its overuse, but..) as fuck, there's enough shit in the music to make it not -just- a metal album, with random sound effects, keyboards, etc, kicking in to help bridge the gap between his darkest work with his lightest, finding a happy middle-ground between them on this album, which also can be said about his musical brutality being hand-in-hand with his musical technicality on this album.
Whereas "Ziltoid the Omniscient" felt like Devin Townsend leaving an anonymous note saying "I have a crush on you" in progressive-metal's locker during recess, "Deconstruction" feels like a love-letter not to the metal genre, but to the unique careers that he and his friends have all chosen, and their unique sounds. When Meshuggah's Frederik Thordendal comes in with his guitar solo on the title track, you -know- it's Frederik Thordendal. When Greg Puciato comes in to scream at Devin Townsend during "The Mighty Masturbator", you -know- it's Greg Puciato. I can go on and on, but it feels like every single spot on this album where a guest vocalist comes in was made specifically for that vocalist, as opposed to just having a free amount of space on a track and looking for anyone to sing over it, but what's great is that while there's a large amount of features on this album, no one's ever given a huge amount of time on a track, but the -right- amount, and by that I mean that when Between the Buried and Me's Tommy Rogers comes in on "Planet of the Apes", he has just the right amount of time to nail a section that's uniquely his own, and hand the microphone back to Devin Townsend. If I had to name one specific guest feature on this album as my favorite, however, it'd have to be Emperor's Ihsahn on the chorus of "Juular", sounding completely fucking demonic as he adds to the intense theatrics of the track.
That's another thing: This album is so fucking theatrical it's insane and is almost like a soundtrack for a movie! The work that Devin Townsend put into making this album pop out of your headphones to fully immerse you into an intense world of the strange is -amazing-, which, sure, you can make the argument that the potty humor on this album can be a bit jarring, even if it's honestly not that prominent (maybe a lyric about a boner here and there, brief farting on a track, etc.. Sounds worse when I actually type it out) and serves as a reminder of "yeah, this album is fucking ridiculous, ain't it?" but I fucking LOVE it for doing that: It's one intense as fuck piece of art that's fully self-aware of how pretentious it and metal can be, and says "hey, why don't we just have some fun?" without having to resort to dumbing down the music, and I think that's pretty great.
Devin Townsend sounds top-fucking-notch vocally on this album, from his soaring opera-like vocals to his devilish screams, and I'd say that his song-structuring on this album is -arguably- the best that it's ever been, and on a lot of days, I'd probably say that this is my favorite Devin Townsend album.. But is it perfect?.. You know what, yeah, it fucking is. I honestly think it is. I think every single track on this album serves a great purpose in the grander scheme of everything it attempts. This album is fucking -incredible-. I can't even begin to imagine how much work went into this album, because it sounds like so much more blood, sweat and tears went into the actual music than "Ziltoid the Omniscient" and that album was FUCKING AWESOME too!! Don't let the criticism of the occasional potty humor lyric or sample turn you away from this album, just grab a pair of your best headphones and listen as Devin Townsend fully immerses you into this.. This... This THING. I don't even know what to call it at this point other than what I imagine the soundtrack to Devin Townsend's mind to be, cheeseburgers and all.
10/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
