Devin Townsend - Transcendence Review

Its with delight that every time I hear a news story about Devin Townsend I know hes about to release a new album or announce a tour, and more recently a DVD live concert. To date he has never disappointed so it was with great sadness to report that his new album Transcendence fails to delight and has become just another "business as usual" release.

One of the things I love most about Devin is that every album has been unique and represents a part of his personality and musical tastes at the time of writing, and knowing the way he writes (i.e. alone and all from within) makes every song special.

Devin has played with musical styles and even formats, such as working as a band and as a solo artist, yet somehow his latest album perhaps marks the end of his original material. For starters this is the first band written album he has been involved with, unless you include Vai's Sex and Religion which he ironically hated as a recording and touring experience. By that he came up with riffs and melodies, and the rest of the band worked with him on the composing making it a band effort rather than a Devin effort.

For this original and fresh musician to open the album with a new version of an old song oddly sets the tone for the album, instead of new exciting band orientated songs, we get Truth, the opening track from Ocean Machine: Biomech. The rest of the songs rarely improve upon this song.



If youve never heard Devin then this is a great entry album, for everyone else it wont hold any surprises.

4/10