DEVIN TOWNSEND, Synchestra Options

[Alex]

Has anybody heard of Devin Townsend here? His new album just came out, it's absolutely amazing. Very epic.

[Alex]

Download the first three songs from his new album. The 3 put together (first two are pretty much just intros) sums up Devin pretty well (the songs are 'Let it Roll', 'Hypergeek', and 'Triumph' btw)

Canada is another amazing song. His work does take a bit of getting used to though.

[PhoenixDecay]

Hi, I'm not a good review writer and my english is not good enough to express fine nuances in my perception. So, I try to write in easy words:

After listening to the album a few times, I'm pretty much surprised, that some songs really interest me. It's not usually the kind of style I like in music, a little bit more in the direction of Dream Theater and Savatage and less Porcupine Tree. I don't really know why they don't do much for me, technically it's interesting, they just don't reach my feelings, I guess.

Synchestra is very atmospheric, has a lot more in the package than the usual music and has more soul than the first adressed bands. Songs I prefer are "Triumph", "Gaia", "Pixillate" as whole songs, the rest sounds good and is important for the album structure. I like most the amount of little details here and there and weird ideas like the odd part in "Triumph" (or the whole "Vampolka"). Lyrics are not the first thing I notice, so I don't know yet. As a drummer I'm a very big fan of Gavin Harrison and his style. In a technical aspect most drummers in the metal/prog-genre are far away from bad and so is Ryan Van Poederooyen. Very impressive and some very cool creative parts, good musicality!
All in all thanks for recommending this album.

P.S.: I like every Opeth song in which the singer doesn't growl, so "Damnation" is cool, just have to listen to it a bit longer.