Devin Townsend: ‘PowerNerd’ Review
If you’ve listened to metal for more than five seconds, you’re at least fleetingly aware of the name Devin Townsend. The man, the myth, the legend, has had one of the most storied careers in the music industry, period. Making a name for himself working with Steve Vai, before forming extreme metal outfit Strapping Young Lad and subsequently making a name for himself under, well, his own name. He’s released everything from rip-roaring, industrial metal at monolithic scale to ambient music to a country folk album and pretty much everything inbetween, and sometimes everywhere, all at once. He’s collaborated with basically every name in metal in some way, and sometimes beyond. He’s become quite a prolific producer in his own right, too, having refined his “wall of sound” aesthetic over the years and working with other artists – with largely positive outcomes. Three decades in, where does such a figure go next?
Enter PowerNerd, which is by all admissions a “back-to-basics” record. Ol’ Devy’s done a few of these over the years, from Addicted! to Sky Blue – but this one is explicitly an overthinking-free record. This is an extremely direct instalment in the extensive canon that is the Devin Townsend discography – the music was even written in a matter of days. Compositionally it’s not trying for the ambition expected from records on the scale of Deconstruction or Empath. Instead, PowerNerd harkens back more towards the direct composition of the previously mentioned Addicted!, but equally in combination with the wistful and atmospheric tone set by the seminal Terria – a personal favourite in his wide ranging discography.
Further still in terms of differentiation, PowerNerd will often veer off to important topics, with songs touching on emotionally intense themes including, but not limited to: petting cats, wanting beer, the joys of morning coffee. What you can’t take away from Devy, is that he’s had an absolutely lovely day and opener, single and title track PowerNerd does a great job at setting the tone – large riffs, that mix of the serious and unserious, and a strong guitar solo.
This is immediately followed by Falling Apart, which harkens back to those Terria days with the gigantic riffs and heavy focus on atmosphere. Similar in nature is Ubelia – containing an incredibly delicate vocal performance atop a pummelling chorus riff and incredibly ethereal atmospheres during the verses. Similarly, Younger Lover has a sort of Spirits Will Collide-esque vibe to it, with an absolutely massive chorus hook. Very much the theme of the record – Jainism carries a similar large chorus worthy of its status as a single, and a great driving riff behind it – and even still, it’s all a rather non-violent affair.
One of the album highlights comes from the barnstorming Knuckledragger, which comes in with a very catchy hook expressing a theavy desire for beer – it’s a track that hops around with joyous candour, with a catchy hook and some great guitar noodling beneath it all. The silly vibes continue in that closing caffeine injection Ruby Quaker, in which Devy (or is it Ziltoid?) opines about his love of the humble bean before an absolutely gigantically heavy segment takes hold and then we return to the ragtime vibes once more to play us out.
PowerNerd achieves its “back-to-basics” goal when taken as a whole – no song breaches the 5 minute mark (barring Goodbye and its soothing ambient outro) and there are very few surprises – but what is here is a nifty summation of a lot of styles of what would be considered “accessible Devy” and as we await the next forthcoming Devy project – the highly anticipated and reportedly extremely complex behemoth that is The Moth – it fits into his canon like yet another warm hug. PowerNerd is not an album that seeks to scatter your comprehension, but it will certainly grab your attention. And finally, we’re reminded that Devin Townsend loves his coffee – and while there’s every chance PowerNerd might not be to your taste, it will certainly keep you awake at night.
