DEVIN TOWNSEND — Terria (review)

Album · 2001 · Progressive Metal

5/5 · 2010-04-28
Negoba

Devy's Masterpiece

Devin Townsend is a productive guy, with lots of examples of his unique style ranging from purely ambient works to one of the heaviest albums ever made. The word "Genius" gets thrown around alot when discussing his creative production, and there is no doubt that his muse is pulling from some plane of existence that most of us don't even perceive. And Terria, well, this is the peak. Here he pulls on the full range of his musical world and in typical fashion, just as it's reaching an insanely intense peak, he breaks to say "After all you're just talking meat, and music, it's just entertainment folks."

After the spacy montage "Olives" sets the stage, we get the metal ambient work of "Mountain," which has an ethereal lyric "You are so beautiful to me." over a harsh vocal screaming "Suffer." Blast beats with angel choruses, guitar armies, screams, it's all here.

And then comes "Earth Day." The over 9-minute tour-de-force comes in with an nearly screamed "Eat Your Beets. Recycle." refrain that was the first thing I ever heard from Devy since a brief sampling of the Steve Vai album over 15 years before. My reaction, and I imagine the reaction of many was "WTF is this?" The actual first verse doesn't start until 2:30. The rapid-fire vocals at 3:40 are as heavy as anything Devy did with SYL. And we have yet another soaring theme to come, a bridge of sorts at 6:40, and once more through the main sections. The power of the piece takes several listens to soak in, but after that, it is musical ecstasy (at least for me.)

How do you follow the best song of a brilliant career? Well, you bring it way down and let the listener rest for a second. We get the heart-wrenching "Deep Peace" which is a logical descendent of "Sister" from the Ocean Machine album. But where "Sister" always felt laden with unrealised potential, "Deep Peace" has a powerful lyric which is superficially lovey-dovey but hints at serious demons under the surface. It includes an amazing electric solo, so uniquely Devy, enormous and overwhelming though not that technical. It's composed as a piece of music and when the band comes in, I'm nearly brought to tears.

This song segues directly into "Canada," which continues in the huge, epic vein of the previous track. Though not quite as powerful as "Earth Day," the big chorus of "It's oil, it's beef, etc." is a classic Devy odd ball lyric. The upbeat and happy "Down and Under" releases the heavy mood next, and is predominantly instrumental. The trend continues with the almost overtly pop "The Fluke" which is my least favorite song on the record. Still, it develops by midway into another enormous production with seemingly hundreds of tracks playing simultaneously. "Nobody Here" is a poppish, melancholy ballad which continues the flow of the album nicely. "Tiny Tears" continues in the slower vein, building layer by layer with great lyrics to the point that the last bars have a thundering metal riff. "Stagnant" is another pop tune that leaves the listener of this extremely dense album with something a little lighter to see them home.

While metal is enormous part of this album, it extends far beyond any one genre. It is one of the best album made since 2000, and possibly the best.

Bottom Line: Amazing Masterpiece

more than 2 years ago
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Pekka wrote:

more than 2 years ago

A great review! Bought this album last weekend after a DTP show (Earth Day was absolute killer) and I've been listening to it a lot. Not sure if it's going to be five stars, but clearly an excellent album anyway.