Search - Devin Townsend :: Infinity

A work of misunderstood genius

meh | 07/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Devin Townsend has basically three types of albums he has released.



A work of accesible genius - Terria

More straightforward, but still original metal albums - Ocean Machine, Accelerated Evolution

A work of insane genius - Infinity.



The cover of Infinity shows Devin naked, with his guitar. And that is what he does on this album - he lets you look into the emotional mind of someone going through a manic depressive state. But unlike the mainstream emo bands of today, he does not go about it by screaming "BLAH I'M SAD", but rather uses his guitar... and roughly 50 million other layers of instruments - including horns, piano, and I'm sure only Devin knows what else.



From the mostly instrumental opener "Truth", you can tell this is going to be a powerful album. Full of amazing drumming, awe inspiring guitar work, a flurry of sonic booms and spine chilling screams of 'HALLELLUJAH', this song is powerful. It then flies without rest into the most normal song on this album - "Christeen". After that you get some jazz/swing metal of "Bad Devil", which is not only catchy, but deep and emotional (the pianos and horns also come in to the mix here too). Then comes the last of the 'normal' songs on the album - "War", which is a great song in its own right.



And thus ends the normal songs.



"Soul Driven" is an extremely odd, slow song, full of about half a billion vocal layers and whose meaning could be analyzed for pages and pages - I don't even pretend to understand it. "Ants" is probably the least subtle song on the album. It is hectic, has lots of samples from commercials/television, and if you look at the song name you should be able to draw a conclusion about what is bothering him from this song. "Colonial Boy" is another more 'normal' song, though it is only normal by DTownsend standards, compared to anything else it is basically just weird.



And then comes the climax of the album - Dynamics. From the extremely high pitched vocals at the start (if anyone doubts he has vocal range, listen to "Dynamics", "Truth" and "Bad Devil") it flies into the most powerful point on the album when Devin screams "AND THE HEAVES WILL MOVE, AND THE EARTH WILL QUAKE... AND GOD HAS FAILED AS A METAPHOR" over a flurry of highly distorted guitars and synths.



"Unity"/"Noisy Pink Bubbles" act as an outro to this amazing album, the soft lullaby of "its all right..." on "Unity" gives way to a moment of silence before the odd "Noisy Pink Bubbles" - which is exactly what the song sounds like.





Overall, you can't get much more inaccessible, confused, emotional, powerful, complex and varied than Infinity is... but it takes a while to sink in. I've heard people say this album has saved their lives. I highly suggest you check it out if you think you can absorb its weirdness."