My Favorite Metal Albums of All Time:

I began the impossible task of cataloging my favorite Metal albums of all time at the beginning of February.  It’s so arduous because I could easily list 100 albums.  It started with about 47 albums. For the readers’ sake, I narrowed it down to 20.  I love Metal as if that isn’t obvious with this decade-old blog. I’ve been listening to Rock and Heavy Metal my entire life. I have loved many bands and albums over the last 18 years of exclusively listening to Heavy music.    The goal of this was to critically think about why I love these albums so much.  The other goal of writing this article was to create a more personal approach to lists and share my slightly unconventional taste in Metal records. 

When I asked the internet about their favorite Metal albums, I found a lot of the usual suspects on there; Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Dream Theater, and Opeth.  It made me wonder why none of these ended up on my list.  The impact these bands and their releases had on the Metal genre is undeniable and I enjoy many of their songs.  I can’t sit and listen to a whole album by any of those artists.  None of the “conventional Metal” albums hold my interest for long.  I went to Rate Your Music and scoured their Metal chart to see if I had forgotten any of my favorite Metal albums, and I found my taste to be once again drastically different from the majority.  Going back through other’s lists and listening to these albums, I realize how weird my taste is. My tastes remain heavily in Progressive and Power Metal. 

You won’t find a lot of “classics” on this list.   I think it’s because I was raised with so many different kinds of music to where I seek out a lot more variation.  Sticking to a theme isn’t always my thing.  I like unconventional artists who push technicality and emotions to the ultimate limits.  I seek out singers with multi-octave ranges and unique tones.  I like heavy, fast drums, dueling guitars, and extremely punchy basslines.  I like Metal which makes me think, tells a story, and evokes profound soul-deep emotion.  I love albums that toe the line between Opera and Metal, and that don’t play by any genre rules. I like it Heavy as fuck, but well balanced with beautiful melodies.  None of these albums on the list will be a surprise to those who know me and will be hopefully interesting to those who don’t.

As with all my posts, music is subjective.  This list doesn’t aim to categorize “the best albums of Metal”, because such a feat is just not feasible to me.  This is based on just my personal taste.  They’re not even in order by most favorites, because what is considered my favorite is highly based on my mood.  I just made a master list and narrowed it down to the 20 that are the most important to highlight my taste.  It should give readers a better sense of what I listen to regularly and just personal taste.  Let me know about your favorite Metal albums below in the comments, I would love to see if any of these albums resonated with anyone else the same way they did with me.

Devin Townsend

I decided to do Part One entirely of my favorite albums by Devin Townsend.  Being my favorite artist of all time his music accounts for most of my listening habits.  He is so influential to me and such an integral part of my life.  I couldn’t choose only one album from his discography to list.  Devin has created some of the most special music over the years.  My entire music taste has been a long search for artists who wish to achieve the same heights of emotional and technical ability.  Maybe it sounds elitist, but he’s my absolute favorite musician and writer.  I said I wouldn’t let an artist become my entire personality.  After hearing Z2 by Devin Townsend Project in 2014, his music took over my listening rotation.  His music is mostly what I listened to for eight months straight or more. It was so transcendental and became so important to uplifting me and inspiring my music and dreams.  That powerful connection with music is what I always strive to find, and I hope other people can find such a connection.  Nothing compares to that connection.  I don’t think I’ll ever find anything like it again.  I find everything he releases to be personally impactful and spiritual.  Spirituality and Music have been intertwined since the dawn of when man would sing and beat bones on skins for entertainment.  This relationship between the two didn’t occur to me until I discovered Devin Townsend, and that’s the main reason why I am such a fan of his music. I’ve been wanting to write this article for years, but never thought it was a good idea until this year. I focused exclusively on Devin’s heaviest albums or what I think are his heaviest albums, and chose my absolute favorites. Honestly, I love all of his material. Everything he puts out is valuable to me, emotionally or just musically.

Going back through Devin’s catalog for this article was such an incredible journey this time.  Experiencing his music again and thinking about why I love these albums and songs so much just fueled me to keep going with my creative projects.  Every time I consider taking a step back from music or writing and think about going back to school, Devin reminds me of where my heart and talent truly lie.  His music inspires me to take my dreams to the absolute pinnacle of where they can go.  If he never gave up despite everyone telling him his ideas were crazy or he was clinically insane for thinking of them, then nobody should ever give up on anything they want to achieve in life.  His musical career has survived the worst possible things someone can go through.  If he can do it through pain and darkness, then so can I.  I truly believe he is the most underrated artist of all time and should be listed among the absolute greats, not just in Metal, but in all music.  Considering the power of his message, his virtuoso guitar playing, and his immense possibly four-octave vocal range, I have no idea why this guy isn’t as big as Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney.  His music may be crazy and extreme at times, but it is always beautiful and profound.  His contribution to music should never be forgotten and deserves a lot more credit.  The albums below are essential to that thought.

I think of Devin and I like kindred spirits, because I relate to his music and his journey on such a deeply personal level.

1. City- Strapping Young Lad (1997)

City, listed as one of the greatest Metal albums of all time as coined by Kerrang and Revolver, is a bombastic assault on the senses and psyche.  It is the most extreme album I have ever heard in my life.  City is Los Angeles personified; An overwhelming chaotic darkness that you have no choice but to dive into.  This album is beyond all reason, all genres, and everything we knew about Metal.  Extreme music wasn’t new in 1997, but it had never gone to this cracked-out level as City did.  This is an audible documentation of someone in complete turmoil in one of the hardest times of their life.  Devin had moved to Los Angeles from Canada and was sleeping on friends’ couches whilst trying to figure out life after Steve Vai and a copious amount of drugs.  It is the most raw level of dealing with one’s emotions audibly.  It is pain from the depths of a soul coming out in the most angry and anxiety-fueled ways you can ever experience.  It is an audible account of someone’s mental health breaking down due to their environment.  It is a rawness artists aspire to, but will never reach.  Nobody expresses the pain of human existence like Devin Townsend.  While Strapping Young Lad started as a farce to make fun of the Heavy Metal scene, they ended up creating the most iconic Extreme Metal records.

I discovered this album for the first time in 2018.  Finally, I decided to go through Devin’s entire catalog and do a deep dive.  This was one of the best decisions I have ever made.  Listening to Strapping Young Lad is a religious experience, in a sense.  It is a spiritual cleanse, a purge of all the darkness and rage I think most people hold inside.  First time I heard this record, my jaw dropped to the floor and tears flooded to my eyes. It was just so overwhelming. Devin has this ability to take the idea of catharsis and take it to the soul-crushing extremes.  City, and most SYL albums, are painful to listen to.  It’s chaotic, abrasive, cloying, and overwhelming beyond anxiety.  It’s like El Paso traffic on a weekday with Metallica in town.  It’s like the height of COVID where everything is telling us the world is ending, we’re all going to die, and humanity is a shit show.  Despite all these negative descriptors, City makes me genuinely happy to be alive and able to experience this album. I still get happy tears listening to the utter brilliance of Gene Hoglan and Devin Townsend together. Gene’s drumming on this record makes all the hair stand up all over my entire body.  His drumming with the riffs on this album is just genial to me.  “All Hail The New Flesh” has to be one of the greatest Metal songs I’ve ever heard in my life.  It’s just so damn relentlessly fast, and still so groove-oriented.  City cements why Gene Hoglan is one of my favorite drummers of all time.  He is the only drummer that could’ve drummed on these SYL albums. I wish I was half as good as he is at drums.

City, it’s insane how great this album still sounds today.  It’s too short, but somehow just right as intense as it is for thirty-nine minutes.  It is all so extreme, but ends one of the most philosophical mind-bending tracks.  I think this is one of the highlights of Devin’s career as a Progressive Metal musician.  There’s just something about the way the chaos ends with such a deep, dark, and interesting track.  The transition is a stroke of brilliance.  I just love Devin’s ability to mix so many different styles in one album.  “Spirituality” is kind of the soul predecessor to the next album on this list, Ocean Machine: Biomech.  Listening to it and Ocean Machine back to back is an eerie experience that can never be replicated.  Experiencing all the sides of Devin is a revelation, but City will always be the apex of the journey for me.  This is where music became limitless for me. I began to understand how extremism and Prog can work together.  It was an eye-opening first experience that I will cherish forever.  “City” is an album that will forever be on the timelines of Metal.  I wish Devin’s other albums received as much press and acclaim as this one.  Maybe he’d be as big as Opeth and Dream Theater, and rightfully so.   

Favorite Songs; All Hail the New Flesh, Spirituality, Detox

 2.Ocean Machine: Biomech- Devin Townsend (1997)

When I am asked what my favorite album of all time is, Ocean Machine is my immediate response.  Choosing an absolute favorite is difficult and contrived in a way.  There have been so many iconic, influential, and important Metal albums since the 1960s.  Choosing one out of a million albums just seems elitist in a way.  Though, I can’t help but let one album define my ultimate personal taste.  Ocean Machine best highlights my favorite sounds in Metal and also highlights some of my personality traits.  Ocean Machine was written at a critically important time in Devin’s life when he had to choose his Mental well-being over the success of Strapping Young Lad.  He began to notice a cognitive discourse between the anger of SYL, and the solo music he was writing while at home.  The two extremes lead to Devin being diagnosed with Bipolar disorder.  Somehow his mental health issues became audibly documented, which is such an interesting experience to hear the separation of two personalities.  It’s an incredible feat, even if it was entirely unintentional.  Through Ocean Machine and his other solo works, Devin began to heal and move on from the most tumultuous years of his life.  You can experience this journey with him through his music.  Unintentionally, Devin became an outlet for so many people struggling and he built a unique cult following that found immense positivity through his music.  This is one of the most profoundly beautiful things I’ve ever seen in music and is why Ocean Machine is so vital to me.  It’s the ultimate catalyst to healing, and god knows, humanity has a lot to heal from.

Ocean Machine is where Devin’s “Power of Positivity” through music began.  Songs like “Life” began this new voice for Devin and allowed a connection to form with new lifelong friends and fans.  Everyone should experience this album at least once in their life.  It is a Progressive and atmospheric triumph with exquisite guitar chord progression and fantastic vocals.  It is a love child of 90’s Alternative, Pink Floyd, Rush, and Genesis…  Yet, the album stands on its own entirely.  I’ve never heard anything quite like it in my entire life.  I feel like describing it is such an arduous task.  Ocean Machine is complex; Still one of the most complex records I have ever heard.  The atmosphere in it captures sitting by the ocean in the dark alone so vividly.  It paints such a unique picture in my head with such profound feelings.  It’s loss, it’s freedom, it’s rejoicing, and so many complex human emotions.  Devin is the most proficient at capturing these sentiments I have ever heard.  Thus, the most epic quad of songs I have ever heard is what makes Ocean Machine an everlasting one-in-a-million experience.  I strive for this level of emotional depth and positivity every day of my life, but still have a lot of work to portray this message. Devin is on another level of self expression. That quality comes out on Ocean Machine so poetically. That’s why it’s my favorite album. It’s not held back by commercialism. It’s not refined. It’s not heavily edited. It’s raw and real tangible emotion. It is a musical of the Human Condition of sorts, and I just can’t get enough of it.

Most call it a trio, but I consider the last track to be an integral part of the journey.  This quad begins with the heartbreaking “Funeral”, where Devin continues to hash out the death of a childhood friend.  It continues with the painful, epic, and droning “Bastard”, one of the darkest songs I have ever heard in my life.  The guitar on that song is absolutely sensational and so unique to anything I’ve ever heard.  “The Death of Music” is a long epic; a dark Peter Gabriel-esque tribal track that perfectly sums up the theme of the album “It’s like a death becomes Musical”.  Devin’s crooning on the bridge “Don’t die on me. Don’t go away. When I need you here. In my need” is one of the most spine-chilling things I have ever heard.  This song is a milestone.  It’s a once-in-a-lifetime underrated masterpiece, and I love it irrevocably.  Ocean Machine closes with one of the most depression-inducing songs I’ve heard. While it’s a bonus track, it was added to the album later on.  “Thing Beyond Things” is everything about unexplainable heartache sonified.  It was originally a demo and featured in his collection “NoiseScapes” as one of the oldest recordings of Devin.  It features an unbelievable 10-second fry vocal scream featuring harmonics that only Devin can seemingly reach.  It is the most epic scream I have ever heard.  Devin puts his body on the line for music again and again, and his ability to perform these songs even today is a superhuman feat.  This album is what made Devin Townsend my favorite artist of all time and it will remain my favorite probably for life. I’m considering doing a bass playthrough of the entire album on Twitch or Youtube this year!

Favorite Songs; Voices In The Fan, Seventh Wave, Funeral, Regulator

3. The New Black- Strapping Young Lad (2006)

This is one of the first albums I put down while compiling this list.  When I think of my favorite Metal albums, The New Black is one I never talk about but it lives in my mind and heart forever.  This is Strapping Young Lad’s last record. I think it’s a perfect representation of SYL’s immensely unique sound.  This album may not have received the acclaim of “City” and “Alien”.  I still find it to be one of my favorite albums Devin has ever released.  It is highly influential to the music I want to write.  The guitar and drum sounds on it are unlike anything I’ve ever heard.   “The New Black” is still as extreme and heavy as ever, but this is where Devin’s awakening in refinement and self-editing began.  His extreme approach to music would continue with “Ziltoid; The Omniscient” and “Deconstruction” which are the “last breaths of SYL”, but this album marked the end of an era.  This album would separate the fans forever.  Many have not moved on from SYL and still refuse to accept Devin as a solo artist.  That is how impactful SYL was on the Metal community.  While it brought Extreme Metal and Prog together for me, it seemingly separated the SYL fanbase  I understand why people have not moved on from SYL, but they’re missing out on the transformation of Devin and everything he’s created since.

“The New Black” is an eclectic mix of Prog Metal, Extreme Metal, and Industrial rhythms that keeps you guessing with every listen.  I find this album to be the turning point of Devin’s vocals, where his refined operatic style began to come out.  It appeared on other tracks before this album a bit, but not as forefront or epic as on The New Black  This is probably one of the greatest transformations in Music.  His grasp on clean vocals and fry vocals is unparalleled in music to me.  Nobody does this transition quite like Devin, with such range, technicality, and pure unedited emotion.  It is quite a sound to behold on any record of his from “The New Black” and on.  This album is where my favorite music of all time began to take its shape.  I also think this album has some of the best riffs in SYL history.  The Title Track, “Far Beyond Metal”, and my absolute favorite song “Almost Again” are filled with groovy and pummeling riffs with the unique Devin Townsend tone.  I hear these riffs ghosted on anything from Gojira to Periphery to Orbit Culture.  SYL and “The New Black’ impacted Metal a lot more than I originally thought.  I had no idea what a big deal SYL was to Metal. I don’t participate in forums or fan-groups, so it wasn’t until other artists started talking about SYL did I realize how influential they were.

Now, listening to this album back to back, I hear so many bands that borrowed from this album. But, I have yet to hear anyone recreate the magic and utter devastation of “Almost Again”.  This song is my favorite SYL song, right above “Love?”, “Spirituality”, and “Skeksis”.  This song has one of the fastest and most incredible drum parts I have ever heard.  It feels like a million volts of electricity pummeling your heart and neurons.   Gene Hoglan really defied the parameters of speed drumming on this song, to the point where few drummers can even play this song today and it has only been played live a couple times.  The technicality blows me away on “Almost Again”, but SYL doesn’t have a slouched song.  They’re pioneers of Extreme and Progressive Metal.  Every song on this album is a triumph to me. “The New Black” forever altered my music taste, and I’ve sought out that balance of heavy and Prog ever since. Devin always achieves a unique blend of styles, but The New Black is definitely one of my favorites. I love that it doesn’t sound like anything else in that era of music. Yet, I find it nostalgic to that time where Industrial Metal was popular. This era of Metal had a unique atmosphere to me that hasn’t been recreated since. It’s a desolate feeling to listen to. It’s eerie, but in a good way. It has a dystopian futuristic feel that would fit in a Bladerunner or Dune film. It’s such a cool experience I’ve only had when listening to Industrial Metal. I think SYL is one of the best at capturing this vibe.

Favorite Songs; Almost Again, The New Black, Wrong Side

4. Accelerated Evolution- The Devin Townsend Band (2003)

The Devin Townsend band, while it shares members with the DTP, was only created to make two keystone albums for Devin Townsend.  This album was a huge departure from his other works.  It was more personal, less about being heavy or extreme.  The band was put together in under a year with local musicians to create a whole fresh experience.  It is the polar opposite of the self-titled SYL album that was recorded at the exact same time.  The Devin Townsend Band began touring with SYL after the albums came out, and they were both really well critically received.  When I discovered Devin in 2014, I had never heard of another musician being so prolific.  Two bands at once and multiple albums in one year under different projects was inhuman to me. His explosive creativity always astounds me.  I think this band was created as a buffer for the chaos that SYL brought.  This was a group of people that Devin could just jam his ideas with and create whatever came out of his head without the need for a theme or time constraints.  Music is not a job or a hobby for Devin, it is a necessity to express emotion and work through it all.  This necessity birthed what I think is one of the greatest songs ever written: Deadhead.

Accelerated Evolution is full of quirky, Hard Rock, and Progressive Metal tracks that rise up quick and soar above anything I have ever heard before.  There is an intangible vibe to this album that reminds me of Superunknown by Soundgarden, Ten by Pearl Jam, and Rush.  It was the most concise, most hook-heavy, and most well-thought-out album Devin had put out in that era.  It was less frantic, more groove-driven, and Industrial at the right point in Music.  It was catchy without going too commercialistic.  It had the potential to be as popular as Fear Factory at the time, but of course, it didn’t receive the promotion it deserved.  I think Accelerated Evolution has some of Devin’s absolute best guitar work, especially the solo on “Suicide” and the complete guitar solo track “Away” which still mesmerizes me to this day. “Away” is such an underrated guitar track.  I like every song on this album and think each one is very distinct from anything ever released as usual. I believe this is one of the strongest albums in his extensive catalog and will always be one of my favorites.  Most of my current music material emulates this album to some degree because the guitar tone and drums are just of the utmost quality.  I like big sounds and big “Rock” mixes, and this album is mixed so well for 2002.  Devin uses so much reverb in his mixes and his guitar effects, it’s become an inside joke among him and the fans. I love it. I love how all encompassing his mixes are. Accelerated Evolution was the first album I noticed this “wall of sound” production, and I fell in love with it.

I just have to talk about “Deadhead’.  This song is one of Devin’s most popular songs and has become unanimous with how people identify him.  It’s an ambiguous song that has never been revealed to what it exactly means to Devin.  But, he always describes it as a “song about love” and a song “written for his wife”, which fits the relationship theme of the album.  It is one of the first songs Devin ever wrote on his very first electric guitar.  He was very inspired by the industrial Metal band Godflesh at the time of writing most of the album.  I think that influence helped create the unique and devastating atmosphere of “Deadhead”, but also a lot of SYL’s atmosphere.  I had never heard a more emotionally painful song in my life.  It’s the drone, the slow tension of the guitar, the backbeat of the drums, and the harmonic fry scream that emulates pain.  I had heard a handful of singers’ harmonic screams before, but none to the frequency or sheer audible pain of Devin.  This song healed things in me that I didn’t even know still pained me.  That’s how powerful this song is.  It can be interpreted as a difficult relationship, a first love, or a really dark break-up song.  I think all of these interpretations of painful situations hit me like a freight train at once. So, I listened to the song until the pain went away.  This course of time was about three months. While some people may think it’s unhealthy to listen to the same song on repeat for that long. I find whatever helps you heal to be absolutely necessary. I fear to think where I’d be in my mental health journey without this song, or any of Devin’s music. I truly think there’s a song in Devin’s discography that can heal anyone.  I don’t know if that’s what he was shooting for with Accelerated Evolution. But, it impacted me as gigantic as the mix is and I think it’s impacting even more people over a decade later. It still hits me like it did when I first heard it, especially the live versions where he even exceeds the original power. His music is forever, and Deadhead is the flagship of that infinite contribution.

My favorite Songs; Deadhead. Traveller, Away

5. Transcendence- Devin Townsend Project (2016)

I featured the very last SYL album, so it’s no surprise I’d feature the last album ever released by DTP, the power group we all loved for a decade.  At the point the DTP was working on Transcendence, I saw a big change in Devin.  He started to relinquish some control of his musical projects and delegate to the other guys, Ryan, Mike, Dave, and Beav in the DTP.  Transcendence was a true band collaboration, which is something we hadn’t seen with Devin’s solo work.  It was a promising turning point to solidify the project as a band, and maybe grow it further for future releases and add more personality to it rather than just being one of Devin’s solos.  And boy, did I love this idea emphatically.  I had become very attached to Ryan Van Poederooyen, the drummer, who is still one of my favorite drummers of all time.  That powerhouse of a drummer and a very inspirational self-sufficient guy inspired me to pick up the drums again, and I’ve had so much fun with the instrument and learning his interesting patterns.  DTP had become kind of a buffer to Devin’s eccentric “madman” style of music.  Ryan and co kept Devin grounded and definitely helped hone in his ideas for one of the best Prog Metal albums ever, Transcendence.  

Transcendence is an anthemic Progressive Metal album that’s a full-circle journey with incredibly complex guitar riffs and one of the best drum performances since Dream Theater’s Images and Words.  It is a huge-sounding record that makes the hair on my arms stand straight up every single time I listen to it. I think this is the “magnum opus” of the DTP.  It’s perfectly constructed with each track just flowing together in perfect timing and harmony.  The Wall-of-sound production from Devin and Periphery’s Nolly Getgood is utterly exquisite.  I will never get over how good this record sounds.  Is it mixed to sound good on every possible form of media?  God, no.  This is an album you have to listen to in FLAC with spatial audio either 2.1 with a sub or 5.1, and that’s perfectly acceptable.  I don’t want to listen to Devin’s music on my “airbuds” while I’m cleaning.  I want to sit down and listen to this album, and have a completely immersive audio experience.  I listen to DTP’s music to be uplifted, emotionally conquered, and unironically “transcended” to a different state of mind.  That’s exactly the intent of this album and it achieves it so loudly.  It’s the loudest mix on a DTP album, so you can hear each member with perfect clarity.  The result is actually mind-boggling. I have no idea how such a perfect mix was achieved.  There are so many layers to this album. 

The choirs, immense synths, many guitar tracks, and the biggest sounding drums ever recorded.  Yet, it sounds so damn good.  On songs like “Failure” and the instant classic “Stormbending” you can pick out each musician, and everyone gets a “solo” of sorts.  The heaviness, and yet the airiness and spine-tingling sounds this album achieves are unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.  My favorite song of the album tops it all off for me, though.  “Stars” is a bombastic track with incredible vocals, syncopated guitar and bass, and epic imagery.  I was lucky enough to watch this song come to life on stream in only a couple hours.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch Devin speed-craft such a beautiful song.  His talent knows no limits and really came to shine on this song in particular.

It’s a mind-blowing emotional and thought-provoking album that makes you feel like you can rise above absolutely anything.  Whether it be self-doubt, social anxiety, the negativity of social media, the depressing news media, or isolation, this album works through all those aspects in a very logical sense.  The connection I made with this record is just so affable, one article where I’m keeping it as short as possible is not enough to go through each song.  It’s just so monumental to me.  How do you possibly articulate an album that encapsulates everything you stand for and believes in?  I can say just go listen to arguably the most epic and perfect track on this album “Higher”.  That song alone may make you understand just how significant this album is and get the message loud and clear, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”  Transcendence and its message have never been more relevant than in 2025 with a world full of hatred and divisiveness.  “Higher” is about rising above negativity and making your own life without the influence of others. It’s taken from the concept of Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation, which are teachings I have brought into my own life. I will always associate this song with Ryan, too, as it’s my favorite work from him on drums and part of his teachings.

In 2016, I was lucky enough to partially experience this album live in person.  Seeing DTP on one of their last tours was phenomenal.  I still can’t believe I got to see them headline at a one-off show in Denver.  It was an experience I am forever grateful for.  I thought the DTP would go on and last for their entire careers as musicians, but sadly, the project was disbanded in 2018 after the release of Ocean Machine Live at Plovdiv.

Favorite songs; Stars, Failure, Stormbending

6.  Empath- Devin Townsend (2019)

While I’m grateful for the DTP and I still love the guys, I found out that I was so wrong about Devin needing people to reign him in and tame him.  This idea is good for some albums, but when it comes to Devin’s unhinged visions, some of the best music has been created without constraints.  Empath was a collection of ideas Devin had long before deciding to disband DTP, but he never had the time to sit down and expand on these ideas.  Talking with Frank Zappa guitarist Mike Keneally over the phone, he would let these ideas flow out.  The two compiled an album together in this manner and went into the studio to record what I think is one of the best Prog Metal albums ever created.   This album is all of Devin’s ideas, personality, and deepest thoughts without limit.  It is infinite in reverberation, full orchestra, full choir, and about thirty very different musicians.  It’s a weird personification of Devin going on an island vacation with his family, but it’s also the journey of life in a chaotic and profound Metal Opera.  There are so many layers and sounds on this record, that it returns him to that “musical madman” viewpoint.  Empath was Devin’s huge launch into solo work 12 years after his last solo release, and I believe it is one of his best works but also one of the best works of music ever created. 

Empath is a fantastical Prog Metal album with all of Devin’s past and present influences combined with infinite layers and the genial guitar work and mixing of Mike Keneally. It is “The most Devin album that Devin has ever recorded” as said by the Angry Metal Guy.  This album is insane and watching him create it over two years was insane in the best way possible. Witnessing this album, as well as all of Devin’s albums, is one of the biggest reasons I am thankful to be alive, to be honest.

Empath is an explosive Prog Metal album with Opera, Symphonic, Extreme, and Ambient influences created by some of the best musicians I’ve heard in my entire life.  It is Devin Townsend to the one-millionth power, and it took so many people to make the sounds of this man’s Synthesia-laden mind come to life.  Mike Keneally took these colors, patterns, and shapes and helped Devin translate them to a team of musicians, essentially learning a new language and creating one of the best relationships in music.  Somehow all of this chaos, passion, multitude of emotions, and influences came together in a Prog Metal epic.  It took three drummers, eight vocalists, four guitarists, three producers, a choir, a pedal steel guitar player, a whistle player, and immense work from Mike, Devin, and Nolly Getgood to create this epic.  It is Devin without limits or constraints, and my god, it is incredibly beautiful.  While it is the least accessible and commercial album he has ever created, it is a piece of pure art that will be forever irreplicable.  It may not be the best example of his vocals or guitar solos, but it is a purge of all the sounds that have ever existed in a brilliant musician’s head, and I think it’s incredible. 

It’s a soundtrack to Devin Townsend by Devin Townsend, and predictably, I love it.  The other musicians also really shine on this album, exposing me to the brilliance of Mike Keneally, Morgan Agren, and Nathan Navarro.  Nathan’s bass lines on this album are absolutely sensational.  It’s one of the things I love most on this album.  You can hear him decimate the bass on “Evermore” and “Genesis” with his unique thumb-picking that just fits so well with Devin’s guitar playing and tone.  These collaborations are just so perfect, it seems as though it was all meant to happen this way.  It made the shock and pain of disbanding the DTP worth it to me because Devin finally had musicians who understood him and could meet the expectations of brilliant musicality.  

I want to talk about some of the songs.  I think “Why?” is one of the most special songs in Devin’s entire catalog and highlights his perfect operatic vocal ability so beautifully.  Metal and opera are no strangers to each other, but rarely do I hear male vocals so well done in this mix. It’s so beautiful.  It really speaks to the message of Empath and how relationships with Empaths work in a group setting.  I really relate to this song, but also most of the songs on the album  I also think “Borderlands” gets stuck in my head more than any Devin Townsend song.  It’s just so catchy and rhythmically interesting.  While it’s kind of ambiguous and seemingly simplistic, it’s such a deep Jungian concept.  It attaches music to a “Muse” and describes upholding a balance to sate the “Muse” and a nuclear family, giving Devin a literal sign to make this album.  The way his mind works is incredible and it comes out so profoundly on this album, but no more profoundly than on “Requiem” and the epic “Singularity”.  “Requiem” is a closer to the era of DTP and a look ahead to the future of Devin’s music.  A choir echoes the beautiful chorus to “Stormbending” which is probably the biggest song DTP ever released and gives you a feeling of closure.  Devin’s full circle approach to his music where he reuses older lyrics is a personal touch that always captivates me. I love how he “rips his own material off”.

“Singularity” is the final to this epic transformation of Devin as a solo artist.  I think it’s a goodbye to his previous works, but also an insight into the “Moth” project coming out in 2025 where he moves to Symphonic work.  This is one of the most epic and gorgeous songs I’ve ever heard in my life.  It’s split up into multiple movements that all encompass every style of music he’s ever done.  It’s got industrial Meshuggah parts reminiscent of SYL,  a little bit of Transcendence and Epicloud, Infinity, and Addicted.  It is one of my favorite songs he’s ever written.  I listen to the “Here Comes the Sun” section of repeat, because Anneke’s vocals are just so uniquely beautiful on “Through the Storm, may you become a Rainbow.:”  This song mirrors the epics of Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and While Heaven Wept in such an ornately Devin Townsend way. I truly believe this is Devin’s magnum opus. I love this song so hugely, I think everyone NEEDS to hear it in full at least once in their life. It’s like listening to a film soundtrack. I envision a short film: A man goes through unbearably dark valleys of loneliness and despair to rise and transcend into the beautiful nebulas with love and light. It’s a sublime piece of music, one of my absolute favorite songs ever written.  I will be listening to it and Empath for the rest of my life and honestly trying to recreate this brilliance in my own music, although I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to ever replicate it.

I await to see if “The Moth” is as visionary as “Singularity”.

Favorite Songs: Singularity, Genesis, Why?

To sum it all up, I love Devin’s music irrevocably. Anything he puts out is significant to me in multiple ways. His music always seems to find me when I need it the most. Whether it be a death in the family, a break up, an injury, or living in an isolated place, his music is always what lifts me up. That’s what his music means to me; It’s about rising about any obstacle and any darkness while accepting everything life has to offer. On “Genesis” Devin screams on the chorus “Let there be light let there be moon! Let there be stars and let there be you! Let there be monsters, let there be pain! Let us begin to live again
From the top to the bottom genesis!” I repeat this message in my head every day. It’s become my mantra. It seems to get me through absolutely anything. Through Devin, I’ve learned to accept pain and find the strength to rise out of it. That’s what his music means to me. Throughout his music career, I find his message of “transcendence” to be loud and clear. Whatever happens in life, you can transcend it and come out of it stronger than you were before. Bad shit is always going to happen, and you can’t fight it. Pure acceptance of the journey has helped me more than any pharmaceutical I have ever tried. His music is literally better than drugs for me. His music is essential to every aspect of my life. I know a lot of people find his music this way. Some people even wonder if he’s a demigod walking and screaming about cheeseburgers among us. I think he’s just an incredible human being with a feast of knowledge and experience to share. Whatever goes on in life, I will always have his large discography to be my soundtrack. I remember who I was before his music. I know who I am after discovering his music. I know it forever changed me for the better, and I hope more people discover him this way.

I could go on and on about Devin’s music for more articles, and I will! Let me know what your favorite albums of Devin’s are. Maybe I will run a poll just for fun.

Check out his work here: https://hevydevy.com

My Favorite Devin Song Live

My top 20 Songs by Devin Townsend (in no particular order)

1. Deadhead
2. Ubelia
3. Jainism
4. Singularity
5. Kingdom
6. Voices In The Fan
7. True North
8. Almost Again
9. Love?
10. Ih Ah
11. Genesis
12. Supercrush
13. Om
14. Stars
15. Failure
16. Stormbending
17. Fallout
18. The Greys
19. Awake
20. Funeral