The second album from The Devin Townsend Project will be called Addicted. The release is scheduled on the November 16th for Europe, November 17th for North America.
Devin gave us an update on his website earlier, here’s what he had to say:
“Hey folks, Dev here with the update for the second instalment of the DTP (Devin Townsend Project). We are just readying the release of album 2, Addicted so here’s a few brief words:
With Ki, I kind of strode out in uncharted territories for myself musically, and loved the experience. But during the course of writing this 4 record project, it was inevitable that I would end up writing a selection of tunes that were very much in line with my back catalogue. This group of songs is the second record in the series, and it is called Addicted.
Musically, Addicted is along the lines of the big, wall of sound hard rock / heavy metal of Ocean Machine and Accelerated Evolution (even Physicist at points). It is a very direct and ‘to the point’ album with an emphasis on groove and the chorus. In the past, lots of my records end up taking a kind of Pink Floyd-ish route (between song meandering etc.) … Addicted is really simple: 11 rocking songs and no bullshit.
I wanted to make a record that was heavy, without being dark or depressing. When I got into metal it was for the energy behind it, but somewhere along the way that energy started getting really negative. In music right now, there’s a ton of heavy bands that are really depressing to listen to loudly. I wanted to make a record without any real deep metaphor on the surface. Something that sounds good, has a good beat, and a positive feeling. It is still heavy as-all-get-out, but I think there’s a differentiation to be made between being ‘peaceful’, and being peaceful but wanting to celebrate loud, crushing music.
The vocal duties on this record are handled by myself and Anneke van Giersbergen. (I wanted to have male and female vocals kind of ‘tell the story’ so to speak). It’s an honour to work with her and she has a lovely, lovely energy. The other musicians on this record are Ryan Van Poederooyen on drums, Brian Waddell on bass, and Mark Cimino on guitars.
I love this record, it affects me in a way that I wasn’t prepared for. It’s a fully rocking album of optimism. If you just want to ‘play it loud’ without any crazy metaphor, this album might be for you!
On other notes:
I have been rehearsing with a new band, and we will start touring in early 2010, representing all the back catalogue of solo material, from Ki, Addicted, Physicist, Ziltoid, Terria, Ocean Machine, dtb, Infinity etc… I have some big plans for this and rehearsals are sounding amazing. The touring entity will be called ‘Devin Townsend’ and is essentially a way for me to get out there and interact again and showcase 15 years of music that never really got it’s fair shake. We look forward to seeing you out there!
I will start the work on the fourth record Deconstruction in Los Angeles in October, some great plans for that… (and btw, THAT is a heavy record with a lot of metaphor…) news on that as it comes!
So I hope you will enjoy Addicted, in the theme of the dtp, the reason Addicted exists is maybe a little deeper than what the record sounds like up front. But up front, it kind of states: ‘Life is tough, the world can be an ugly place…so lets forget about the dramas and ROCK – here’s some heavy guitars, big choruses and killer beats’
Song Titles:
ADDICTED / UNIVERSE IN A BALL / BEND IT LIKE BENDER! / BEAUTIFUL CRUSH / HYPERDRIVE / WILD HEARTS / IH-AH! / THE WAY HOME / NUMBERED / SOULS AWAKE! / OM
To get a taste of “Addicted” check out the following Youtube-clips:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItWy2ESsEtE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_pgmIdIkvQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Eaak0fmqg
InsideOut Music, New releases
Devin Towsend, InsideOut Music
Additionally, Pain of Salvation have also just finished works for their upcoming studio album release, “Road Salt Ivory”, and Gildenlöw comment as follows:
