Devin Townsend – The Puzzle (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:25 minutes | 702 MB | Genre: Progressive Metal, Avant-Garde Metal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © HevyDevy Records Inc.
Townsend: “So what is The Puzzle?.. well, its not technically my new record, it’s more a collaborative, multimedia art project that acts as a stopgap between Empath and the next record, Lightwork (due out in March of next year on Inside Out Records). The Puzzle includes two ‘soundtracks’ of sorts (the highly orchestrated ‘Puzzle’ and the very chill ‘Snuggles’) along with a film, graphic novel, novel, and a huge amount of multimedia. It includes many artists (upwards of 50) that participated via Zoom during the pandemic and the experience gave me a chance to purge and be completely creatively free. As such, it is a stream of conscious, and very abstract collection of music that includes a narrative (in the form of a film) and is meant to be a documentation of what the pandemic felt like to me.
I’m very proud of it, and I will be uploading some of Snuggles next. Note: it is *not* meant to be considered a normal album, it is truly a sprawling, complex, multimedia cathartic release that was inspired by the events of the last year and a half. Lightwork is much more in line with what I’ve done in the past (Transcendence, Empath, Addicted, Ocean Machine, etc) but Puzzle is very near to my heart. It includes so many of my friends and peers, and it has zero limits on it… it’s almost like Puzzle and Snuggle are like a modern day Devlab and Hummer (two old albums of mine) but the difference being the levels of complexity this project included. Mixing it alone was a nightmare, let alone the film, the books, the box sets, etc. (the box set is a hand numbered and signed piece of work that is limited to 1000 pieces).
I’m sure this won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, and I would imagine the listeners who are more interested in ‘Kingdom’ or ‘Deadhead’ would be better suited to wait for Lightwork (and I can appreciate that very much…) however, The Puzzle has been my soundtrack for the last year and a half, and in keeping with the idea of making sure that what I am writing is authentic to what Im feeling, The Puzzle is essentially my documentation of the pandemic and the world around it. It has been a very intense time, as I’m sure you’d agree…”
Tracklist:
1-1. Devin Townsend – Chromatic Ridge (03:43)
1-2. Devin Townsend – Life is but a Dream (03:29)
1-3. Devin Townsend – Yucky Lung (01:22)
1-4. Devin Townsend – Kittenhead (01:13)
1-5. Devin Townsend – Shark In The Ice (01:49)
1-6. Devin Townsend – Devil In The Details (00:58)
1-7. Devin Townsend – Hammerhead Sugarplum (03:47)
1-8. Devin Townsend – Me and The Moon (04:12)
1-9. Devin Townsend – Anxiety in Pyjamas (03:28)
1-10. Devin Townsend – The Yugas (03:01)
1-11. Devin Townsend – Albert Hall (03:58)
1-12. Devin Townsend – Starchasm (03:59)
1-13. Devin Townsend – Perfect Owl (02:17)
1-14. Devin Townsend – Maybe Over The Void (02:56)
1-15. Devin Townsend – Light Year Whale (04:31)
1-16. Devin Townsend – FrogFlowers (01:11)
1-17. Devin Townsend – Mother (04:28)
1-18. Devin Townsend – Southern Sky Geometry (02:11)
1-19. Devin Townsend – The Puzzle (05:22)
1-20. Devin Townsend – Monuments Of Glitch (07:22)
