Guitarist and producer extraordinaire Devin Townsend is due to release his latest offering 'The Retinal Circus' on 30 September. Check out the official promo video of the Retinal Circus here.
Devin is one of the hugely talented but slightly eccentrics of the metal industry, being discovered by Steve Vai in the early 90's and performing vocals on Vai's Sex & Religion album. Townsend has had an extensive career releasing many albums almost concurrently with each other yet in different musical styles with Devin Townsend Band and Strapping Young Lad, almost characterising the two sides of his diagnosed bipolar disorder.
With Strapping Young Lad, Townsend had already vented his distaste for the music industry. This came to a climax, when in 2007 he almost gave up music altogether stating that he was "burnt out on traveling, touring, and self promotion". After a period of self realisation, and after writing a whole load more music, Townsend released a further four albums each different in nature, and then followed with his latest Album Epicloud. Townsend was briefly involved in a project with former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, however when bandmates James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich found out, Hetfield stated that he was "fucking pissed" and prevented any of Metallica working on anymore side projects.
Townsend's familiar sound uses a lot of reverb or delay, and uses a thick wall of guitar sounds, achieved by layering multiple guitar tracks. Although technically a very proficient guitarist, he is not a big fan of guitar solo's and only uses them when he feels it adds to the musical context of the song.
Check out this great video of Devin demonstrating some of his musical styles, and his opinion on his wasted childhood learning how to solo like a true (dungeon) master.
