Devin Townsend Project - "Transcendence"

Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence
2016, Inside Out

DISC ONE: Transcendence
1. Truth
2. Stormbending
3. Failure
4. Secret Sciences
5. Higher
6. Stars
7. Transcendence
8. Offer Your Light
9. From the Heart
10. Trans-dermal Celebration

DISC TWO: Holding Patterns
1. Gump
2. Celestial Signals
3. Support the Cause
4. Into the Sun
5. Time Overload
6. Lexus
7. Farther On
8. Victim
9. Monkey Mind
10. Canucklehead
11. Loud

Listening to Transcendence is a bit of a gear shift from previous albums. Not that Devin & co. have changed styles or anything like that. It's more that previous albums have taken a more accessible pop direction. Addicted!, Epicloud, Sky Blue, and Dark Matters all married Devin's "wall of sound" style with pop hooks for albums that were both meaty but easy to digest. Transcendence, however, is much more progressive and ponderous. It's close in style an album like Synchestra or maybe the original Ziltoid. The songs are still very heavy, but overall slower in tempo and lack the standard song structures of the previous discs. As a result, this is going to be a bit of a grower. It's going to take a few listens for things to sink in. One thing I noticed is that the drumming is absolutely off the chain here! Ryan Van Poederooyen is really firing on all cylinders. I think it's one of his best performances on any Devin album I've heard. I'm still not sure how exactly I feel about this record, though. I like it but it hasn't really sunk in yet. I've still got more listens to go, but the good thing is that I do want to listen.

Useless Fact: The album title has to do with Devin "getting over himself" both literally and spiritually. He let the other band members have more input into song writing than normal.