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devin townsend

DEVIN TOWNSEND: Unboxing Of ‘Deluxe’ Edition Of ‘The Retinal Circus’ (Video)

Manos Spanos
Renowned Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer Devin Townsend played a special concert October 27, 2012 at the Roundhouse venue in London, England as part of a one-night-only event, dubbed "The Retinal Circus", that was recorded for both DVD and Blu-ray, and was released on October 29 in North America (Sepember 30 in Europe) via InsideOut Music. "The Retinal Circus" was released on several formats, including a lavish and bonkers limited edition befitting of the man himself, and which took months of hard work to put together. The complete list of formats is below: * Standard 2-disc DVD * Standard 1-disc Blu-ray * Standard 2-CD audio * Special edition (2 DVDs/1 Blu-ray/2 CDs) box set * Diehard deluxe fan box including 2 DVDs, 1 Blu-ray, 2 CDs A six-minute "unboxing" video of the diehard deluxe fan box of "The Retinal Circus" can be seen below. Devin previously described "The Retinal Circus" as "a retrospective of my career in music to date, with the central theme being a metaphor of how life and the adventures therein are a 'circus' of sorts. The show involves a cast of characters and guests that support this theme through carnival type performances. A story about how a troubled young man dreams of fantastic scenarios, (illustrated through the music of my back catalogue), which ultimately crests in the characters realization that life is all about the relationships we have with each other. This is the first opportunity I have been given to make theatrical representations of my music." In an interview with Metal Insider, Townsend stated about "The Retinal Circus": "It's like such a clusterfuck on stage. Whether or not people who're new to it understand what I'm trying to do, I like the idea that it's like… When I watch it, I'm, like, 'That's pretty much how I feel it should look like.' For better or for worse, it's like this crazy chaos." Regarding what inspired the setlist for "The Retinal Circus", Townsend said: "I tried to get a bit of everything, but at the end of it, it was most important to include the songs that we could illustrate the best. The show itself had this peculiar story and so that story arc required me to choose songs that would contribute to that, rather than just elbow it in there. So we missed some stuff. 'Terria' wasn't in there, and whatever, but it leaves room for the next thing."
02 min read

DEVIN TOWNSEND Has ‘No Interest’ In STRAPPING YOUNG LAD Reunion

Manos Spanos
Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal of Metal Assault recently conducted an interview with renowned Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer Devin Townsend. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Metal Assault: The last time we did an interview, it was September of last year and at the time you were telling me about this "Retinal Circus" show that you were going to do soon after. Here we are almost a year later, and you're soon releasing a DVD of that show. First of all, for you what was that experience like, doing that show in London? Devin: It was basically every emotion sort of wrapped up into one. Being perfectly honest, overall it was a really good experience but it was fraught with technical hurdles and I didn't actually recognize what we had done until I started editing it. In hindsight, it's great but at that time it was just a lot of stress. Metal Assault: What kind of technical problems did you face? Devin: Well, the ideas that I typically have for "Retinal Circus" or "Ziltoid" or any number of projects that I do are usually on such a scope that there's no feasible way you can do it with the amount of money and time that we usually have. "Retinal" was an extreme version of that. There were a 100 people in our performing group, we had a day and a half worth of rehearsal, and overall, we did achieve what I had hoped to achieve from the show, but to get it to that point it was chaos. You can imagine when there are a 100 people, including circus performers, choir members and people that had no connection to what I've done or to the music itself. They had to become familiar with the music and being on our stage, and all these things that went into this three-hour performance. We had props, we were playing songs we'd never played before, and I think there were 50 or 60 wireless units going. Something as simple as trying to find the frequencies for the wireless units became a challenge when we had to go and do it amidst the chaos of pulling off something that was so bizarre. For me, on a personal level, narcissistic to the point of nausea, it was a heck of a thing! But ultimately, for me it was a success. I tend to be hyper-aware of what I do and what it is that I project into the audience, I real awkward sort of quasi-nerdy thing. So by doing "Retinal", which was so awkward and so nerdy, it allowed me to kind of liberate that. It's what people are going to say now,
06 min read

DARKEST HOUR To Release New Album In August

Manos Spanos
Washington D.C. metallers DARKEST HOUR will release their new album on August 5 via Sumerian Records. The CD was recorded at Oceanic Recording with producer Taylor Larson. A video teaser for the new DARKEST HOUR album is available below. DARKEST HOUR guitarist Michael Schleibaum last August stated about the direction of the group new material: "When John Henry [vocals] and I started the band some 18 years ago, we could have never imagined the sound would travel this far. "The making of this record (dating back to January of 2012) was both a painful and joyful one and the end result has become something truly transcendent. "John's work with Taylor on the new demos has proven to be the best he's ever sounded and the introduction of the creative minds of both Travis Orbin (drums) and Aaron Deal (bass) have taken the songwriting someplace otherworldly. "You can expect a massive evolution. "The [recent] KILLSWITCH [ENGAGE] tour couldn't have come at a better time for us creatively. It gave us the time and space to think about the album as a whole and really craft something special." Added John Henry: "To say that writing with Travis has been a metamorphosis is an understatement. His playing style and influence has soaked itself into the soul of the band. His perspective has brought new life into both our writing process and way of thinking. "Taylor has fresh ears and new eyes on both production and the way people hear music. "We've recorded with some amazing producers (Brian Mcternan, Fredrik Nordström, Devin Townsend, Peter Wichers) who all in one way or another brought their own spin to the band's sound. However, with these new demos, we hear the potential for a new sonic overhaul and can't wait to dig in and track these final takes." DARKEST HOUR's sixth CD, "The Human Romance", sold around 3,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 185 on The Billboard 200 chart. The effort landed at position No. 3 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
02 min read