Accelerated Evolution

Accelerated Evolution is the fifth studio album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend. The written and produced by Townsend album is a blend of style elements of alternative rock to hard rock to progressive metal. Singer and guitarist Townsend formed a group of musicians from Vancouver to record the album with them, guitarist Brian Waddell, drummer Ryan Van Poederooyen, bassist Mike Young and keyboardist Dave Young. This occupation called The Devin Townsend Band was the first line-up, which was intended for his solo material and is intended as a counterpart to Townsend's extreme metal project Strapping Young Lad.

Accelerated Evolution was written at the same time as the self-titled Strapping Young Lad album and recorded, which is why Townsend his attention had to devote two. Accelerated Evolution was in Vancouver, British Columbia recorded from September to November in 2002 and appeared at Townsend's independent label HevyDevy Records in March 2003. The album was favorably because of its mixture of various genres and influences, his musical accessibility and its wide range of rock production by critics recorded

Background

During the work on his early solo albums Infinity (1998) and Physicist (2000) by Townsend lived a number of personal problems that affected his skills as a songwriter. He overcame these problems with Terria (2001), the Townsend referred to as a " really wholesome plate ". After Terria Townsend won the passion for his music again and said, " Hau rein. It will touch me and be strict, but I 'm not afraid of both. "In 2002, Townsend began work on his next two albums. He reactivated his project Strapping Young Lad, which was inactive for four years and started the songwriting for the next release Strapping Young Lad ( SYL ).

At the same time, Townsend formed a new permanent and Strapping Young Lad equivalent band with which he was able to resume his solo projects and go on tour. The The Devin Townsend Band consisted of Brian Waddell on guitar, Ryan Van Poederooyen on drums and brothers Mike Young and Dave Young on bass and the keyboard. As with Strapping Young Lad Townsend played guitar, sang and produced. He selected members of local bands who " had not had the same experiences " brought in and a new way of looking at " all these feelings ", which are reflected in his solo material. Townsend found it to play " refreshing" with people who appreciated his solo material more than that of Strapping Young Lad noteworthy was the absence of Strapping Young Lad drummer Gene Hoglan, who had played on the previous three solo albums.

Townsend wrote and produced the first album with this lineup at the same time that he worked on SYL and spent one week each half for a week and the second half for the other project. The album was recorded and mixed by Townsend and Shaun Thingvold, who had already collaborated on several albums by Townsend and Strapping Young Lad. The working title was Relationships, the title was later changed to Accelerated Evolution, which should be a reference to the rapid pace at which a new band was put together in less than a year.

Music

Accelerated evolution was written as a counterpart to SYL. The album takes up influences from different genres such as alternative rock, hard rock and progressive metal with elements of Heavy Metal, Ambient, humor and experimental music. The album was as melodic and more rocking than SYL or Physicist and more song -oriented than Terria described with influences ranging from John Lennon Jimi Hendrix to Rush. Songs like Storm, Suicide and Sunday afternoon were compared with Townsend's Infinity album, but were characterized as " less crazy and more mature ." Townsend wanted to write a more commercial album and make his style more precise and catchy, but without having to write pop songs. He sat more than on the previous albums clear vocals and produced and mixed the album with his usual wall of sound by putting a large number of audio tracks with guitars, keyboards and vocals over each other.

Publication

Accelerated Evolution was released in March 2003 by Townsend's independent label HevyDevy Records. In Canada it is marketed by HevyDevy, in Japan by Sony in Europe and North America by InsideOut. The artwork was designed by Travis Smith, who had already taken over the design of Terria and SYL. InsideOut also published a special edition of the album, an EP which was attached with three titles and the name Project EKO, Townsend's first experiments in the field electronica. The album reached # 135 in the French album chart and # 249 of the Japanese Oricon charts.

Before Townsend had formed the The Devin Townsend Band, he played his solo material during live performances with Strapping Young Lad; the band played a set of songs by Strapping Young Lad and one with songs by Devin Townsend. After the release of Accelerated Evolution Townsend began to tour with Devin Townsend Band, Strapping Young Lad sometimes without and sometimes with. After the Devin Townsend Band had completed in July 2003 in Vancouver two appearances on the publication in October 2003, followed a tour of Canada with Strapping Young Lad and Zimmers Hole. This was followed in November and December 2003, a North American tour with the progressive metal band Symphony X.

Reviews

Accelerated Evolution was well received by critics. Mike G. of Metal Maniacs called Accelerated evolution as " Album of the Year " and praised it for the " hard to reach a balance between extreme and yet catchy, hard- to rock and to be both majestic and beautiful " William Hughes of Sputnik Music called it " exciting, " and wrote that the album " contains elements that are aimed at fans of different genres, from progressive rock to metal. " Alex Henderson of Allmusic described the album as "excellent" and praised Townsend's ability genres and influences to combine: " The Canadian rockers provides plenty of down -tuned guitars to sort this CD into the category of alternative rock. Yet Accelerated Evolution offers the great sound of pop-metal, arena rock and hard rock of the '70s and '80s - great melodies, great harmonies, great guitar, great vocals, great production, " Chris Hawkins of KNAC.com wrote:". Devin does what he always does: he nimmte a highly contagious rhythm, hands him his stamp on and so creates something completely independent " Xander Hoose from Chronicles of Chaos likened the album especially with SYL and noted that" there is more variety and. that the songs are more memorable than in the one-dimensional counterpart SYL ". Hoose added that " for those who Terria too went in the wrong direction, Accelerated evolution is possibly the reconciliation."

Title list

All pieces were written by Devin Townsend with additional arrangements by Brian Waddell, Ryan Van Poederooyen, Dave Young and Mike Young.

The special edition of InsideOut contained Project EKO, an electronica EP by Townsend.