Album Review: Devin Townsend Project-Epicloud

As pretty much everyone in the metal community knows, Devin Townsend is the most unpredictable artist in metal. He experiments with different sounds on every record and you really never know what to expect from him. Of course some of his experiments don't work and unfortunately Epicloud is one of those.

Epicloud is a primarily poppy record with bursts of Townsend's heavy and acoustic sides. It's essentially an even poppier and not even nearly as good version of his brilliant, genre-bending 2009 effort Addicted. What made Addicted so special was the catchy, memorable melodies and the stunning vocals of Anneke van Giresbergen alongside Townsend. Epicloud's biggest issues is the fact Anneke is criminally underused and  that the catchy melodies are few and far between. Anneke is given a few moments to shine, but it's really a damn shame she wasn't give more time to sing on this record. Her vocals are absolutely perfect for this style of poppy rock/metal and she has one of the best voices I've ever heard in my life. Even with the occasional burst of Townsend's greatness, Most of the tracks here just kind of drag and make very un-Townsend awkward, unnatural transitions from heavy riffs to poppy, keyboard-driven stuff ("True North" and "Liberation" are perfect examples of this). The album pretty much goes nowhere for most of it's 50-minute duration. There are only a couple of standouts and misfires with a whole lot of mediocrity that kills any momentum it builds up. The re-recording of "Kingdom" was really the only track I want to frequently revisit in the future. It kicks the shit out of the original version and fully shows the musical growth that Townsend has gone through in the past decade. This version of "Kingdom" gives us a studio version that finally matches the power of the live version.

Epicloud is a so-so record that missed the mark for me. When you're a musical mad scientist like Devin Townsend, Not everything he brews up in the lab is going to be good. This record just seems too rushed and comes across more as Addicted-lite than anything truly special. I think this record could've been great if it had more memorable hooks/melodies and more of Annneke's stunning vocals. Some Devin Townsend fans will love this record, but it just didn't work for me. I know it won't be long before he pulls another mind-blowing record out of his hat and that's the beauty of his music, You never know what he's going to come up with next.

2.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Kingdom (re-recording)
2.More!
3.Where We Belong