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It has taken that notoriously lazy Canadian slacker seven years to produce the sequel to Ziltoid the Omniscient. Fetid. Honestly, what has he been doing in the meantime? Less than six months since the release of the crowd-funded Casualties of Cool comes Z². Devy’s legion of devotees pledged enough to fund the space-country project three times over. The remaining revenue has gone into the drive for Dark Matters, the second instalment in the saga of everyone’s favourite fourth-dimensional coffee-questing megalomaniac alien. Z² is bolstered by a brand new DTP album, Sky Blue. The whole package is two hours long (three hours if you plump for the special edition plus bonus disc which dispenses with the narration on Dark Matters), so settle down with a tall latte and let me be your astral guide through the exponentially expanding vastness.
Sky Blue begins in anthemic style with ‘Rejoice’. A crunching riff contrasts with the ethereal and angelic vocals of Anneke van Giersbergen and immediately we are in familiar territory. Eschewing the complexity of Deconstruction and the dreamy ambience of Ghost and Casualties of Cool, this is the power-pop DTP of Epicloud and Addicted – wall-of-sound massed harmonies over crushing metal rhythms. ‘Fallout’ is a juggernaut of fist-pumping rawk power which segues into the lighter-aloft power balladry of ‘Midnight Sun’. ‘A New Reign’ keeps the mid-tempo arm-waving going but by this point the arm starts to tire – this is a little too similar to the previous track so when ‘Universal Flame’ explodes from the speakers its exuberance is glorious. Folks, this is basically Europop with the amps turned to eleven: synth-brass, radio-friendly chorus, posturing guitar solo, the lot – ABBA meets Europe. Wonderful.
‘Warrior’ sees Anneke taking the lead vocal on the verses and more prominent synths doubling the guitar arpeggios which are reminiscent of ‘Angel’ from Epicloud. This is the most complex song so far but simpler fun times are ahead. The title track drags us back to the dancefloor for another shimmy around the handbags whether we like it or not. Yes, it’s more trash pop! Electronic beats, string-synth stabs, processed voice and club-friendly snare fills mean this isn’t a million light years removed from Lady Gaga’s output. If this strikes terror into your heart then fear not as ’Silent Militia’ will have you grinning like a loon. For a bit anyway. Its big dumb riff is nothing less than a triumph of metal stupidity. Devin does his best James Hetfield impersonation in what is surely a nod to a similarly named track from Metallica’s debut. Burbling electronica fizzes away in the cauldron though, adding yet more pop spice to Chef Hevy Devy’s recipe. Some of these tracks are going to go off like a supernova when played live.
After all that frivolity it’s time to get serious. ‘Rain City’ is a darker epic. A repeating piano figure and skitterish percussion loops recall latter-day Porcupine Tree before an extended cinematic outro which owes something to Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack. The futuristic film noir mood morphs into a backdrop for the song ‘Forever’, a reflective memento mori which gradually transforms from torch song to the horrific screams of the dying, complete with tolling bell – this section would’ve sat comfortably on a Triptykon album. The closing “God I love you. Goodbye” is heartbreaking but finds its foil in ‘Before We Die’. A massive “fuck you” to the Grim Reaper, this life-affirming hymnal preaches the gospel to “start living” and “remember to go slow ‘cos there is always time to live before we die”. Again an extended ambient soundscape provides the comedown. ‘The Ones Who Love’ is a classically-inspired aria whose vocal lines mesh amid a piano setting with the sounds of doves being released providing an end peace to what is DTP’s most eclectic album to date.
Eclecticism has its price though. Sky Blue doesn’t have the cohesion of Epicloud and the breadth of its scope means that it trails off a little at the end compared to the highs that have gone before. This is the most pernickety of criticisms of what is another jewel in the crown that is Devin Townsend’s catalogue.
Keep your transponders tuned to this frequency for part two of this review – Dark Matters.
To be continued…
