DEVIN TOWNSEND — Infinity (review)

Album · 1998 · Progressive Metal

3.5/5 · 2023-02-18
UMUR

"Infinity" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Canadian artist Devin Townsend. The album was released through HevyDevy Records (Townsend´s own label) in October 1998. It´s the successor to "Ocean Machine: Biomech" from July 1997. Townsend sings most vocals and instruments on the album, but did bring in his Strapping Young Lad bandmate Gene Hoglan to play the drums on "Infinity". The album features other minor session/guest appearances, but "Infinity" is predominantly the work of Townsend and Hoglan.

While "Ocean Machine: Biomech" (1997) certainly is both a progressive and quite adventurous release, "Infinity" takes it a bit further and adds more musical experiments and elements from different genres of music. It´s obvious that Townsend felt a need to branch out and try different things and "Infinity" arguably became the vehicle for that. The creativity and increased will to experiment came after Townsend had a mental breakdown in December 1997 and checked himself into a mental-health hospital, where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The knowledge of having a diagnosis explaining his erratic and mood shifting behaviour gave Townsend enough energy and confidence to start writing material for "Infinity". Although he was prescribed drugs to balance his bipolar disorder, he did however continue his drug and alcohol abuse (which he would for a number of years, and he has often been cited that "Infinity" was created "under the influence".

...and the material on "Infinity" also sounds like it. It´s not that it´s psychadelic or stoned, but it´s highly eclectic and there´s not much of a red thread through the album. This is definitely the sound of Townsend writing songs which stick in every which direction depending on the mood he was in while composing (and those were obviously very different moods).

The predominantly instrumental "Truth" opens the album in great epic style but is succeeded by the infectiously catchy, melodic, and mainstream oriented "Christeen", which again is succeeded by the erratic, uplifting, horn driven, big band jazzy "Bad Devil". I struggled for years to wrap my head around "Infinity" opening with three so different sounding tracks, but I guess it´s a good example of Townsend very much being an aquired taste, and that his music for some people (including me) take years to learn to appreciate. "War" is up next and it´s another great heavy song, which features multible layers of keyboards/synths, guitars, vocals, and heavy rhythms. The vers melody is infectiously catchy and one of Townsend´s most memorable melody lines. The chorus part (in fact most of the song) is busy as hell, featuring many layers of sounds to digest for the listener. The song closes with an ambient part with Townsend singing a capella with only a lead guitar melody supporting him.

"Soul Driven" (titled "Soul Driven Cadillac" on the InsideOut re-release) is a slow, heavy, and ambient atmospheric composition. Huge synths, layered vocal parts, and heavy chords. To my ears it´s not the most remarkable track on the album and while it would be wrong to say that little happens on the track, it´s a pretty one-dimensional ambient song with little structural development. It is succeeded by the absolutely crazy, erratic, and almost childish "Ants". It´s a highly energetic and fast-paced track which is almost avant garde in nature. Not exactly a highlight of the album. "Colonial Boy" (titled "Wild Colonial Boy" on the InsideOut re-release) is the next track on the album. There´s a dark carnival fair element to this song, which features multible layers of vocals, choirs, and harmonies. It´s another one of the more erratic tracks featured on "Infinity".

So we´ve reached the closing three tracks of the album. "Dynamics" (titled "Life Is All Dynamics" on the InsideOut re-release) is a grand epic slow building track which again features multible layers of guitars, synths, and vocals. It has a linear structure and just builds and builds in intensity and layers throughout the track. "Unity" follows and it´s a more mellow ambient track, which by this point also feels necessary to ease the listener´s pulse after the four rather erratic songs predecing it. While I wouldn´t exactly call it a stripped down track, it´s still less busy and layered than most other tracks on the album. At least the first 3 minutes of it, because around the 3 minutes mark Townsend starts building layers upon layers of ambient synths/keyboards on the track, which continues in a crescendo fashion for the remainder of the song. "Unity" ends with around 1 minute of silence before "Noisy Pink Bubbles" kicks in to close the album. "Noisy Pink Bubbles" is a relatively bizarre track. It´s predominantly another mellow ambient track, but the opening vocal section features a lounge jazzy feel, which sounds a bit strange in the context of the rest of the song. So it´s another pretty erratic moments on the album, but overall "Noisy Pink Bubbles" is an interesting and quite melodic and atmospheric track, which works well.

Upon conclusion "Infinity" is both a well produced and well performed album, but the songwriting will mostly appeal to those who enjoy Townsend´s most erratic/eclectic side. The tracks are very different from each other and the album doesn´t flow very well. To my ears the first four tracks are absolutely brilliant, while the remaining part of the album struggle to reach the same excellence (and never do really do). "Infinity" is still well worth investigating because Townsend is the musical genius he is, and the album therefore features loads of interesting songwriting ideas, production techniques, and mind-blowing musicianship, but as a whole album listening experience it is a bit lacking. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is maybe in the high end considering my personal opinion on much of the material featured on the album, but there´s simply too much quality here to give any less.