This post was originally published on this site
When DEVIN TOWNSEND publicly re-emerged in 2009 after a self-imposed musical hiatus, his impressive work ethic had clearly not changed. With the newly minted DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, the Canadian musician committed to four new records; each stylistically distinct, but linked by an overarching theme of processing and recontextualising his career to date. “It seemed as if accountability was of utmost importance,” Townsend notes in his autobiography, Only Half There. “The music began to define itself as ways of clarifying things I had written in the past without concern for how people interpret them.”
The first album in the series was Ki, a jazzy night-time rock record that constantly threatened to become something more menacing. It felt like Townsend reckoning with some of the causes that drove his hiatus – notably, his discomfort with becoming known for STRAPPING YOUNG LAD and the toll extreme music took on his own headspace. With demons exorcised, Ki laid a safer foundation for Townsend to dip his toe in to something heavier. “The thought behind Addicted,” Devin shares in the Contain Us liner notes, “is that after Ki, perhaps there was a way to engage in heavy music without it being psychologically damaging.”
Unsurprisingly considering its title, Addicted became an outlet for Townsend to grapple with his own addictive personality. “At the time, I’d gone very hardline against any alcohol or weed,” Devin notes in his own podcast series. “But I found all these things started to migrate to different areas I’d become addicted to – worry, or relentless productivity.” The last fifteen years had seen DEVIN TOWNSEND gain a reputation as a prolific artist and, in turn, someone who was always totally consumed by what he was working on. His identity hinging on his unrelenting work ethic also provided an excuse to avoid engaging with his own mental health. He continues, “If I stopped, I’d have to face what really the underlying cause of this addictive tendency could be. I think the Addicted record was about trying to understand what that underlying cause was.”
There is some irony then in Addicted’s creation still seeing DEVIN TOWNSEND possessed by the project ahead of him. Compared to the more organic approach of earlier works, Townsend’s songwriting for Addicted was far more deliberate. “The goal was to create something very heavy and very commercial-sounding at the same time, perhaps a cross between METALLICA, ENYA and DEF LEPPARD,” Townsend admits in Only Half There. Though he had dabbled with poppier songwriting before (Life from Ocean Machine, Christeen from Infinity), the results had always felt like a fluke. Addicted was to see Townsend meticulously unpick how radio-friendly songs were structured, written and recorded. With its tight focus on catchy melodies and big, arena rock sounds taking several pages out of the Mutt Lange book of music, Addicted was effectively to be Townsend’s very own Hysteria.
As recording for Addicted kicked off in May 2009, DEVIN TOWNSEND used the opportunity of assembling musicians to build bridges with old friends and contemporaries – a fitting approach, considering DTP’s ethos of processing the past. First up was childhood friend Brian “Beav” Waddell. Beav had previously been guitarist in the DEVIN TOWNSEND BAND and was still close with that group’s drummer, Ryan Van Poederooyen. With Townsend convincing Beav to switch to bass, the two DTB alumni were brought on board to provide the album’s rhythm section. To accompany him on guitar, Townsend contacted Mark Cimino, a friend from his VAI days in LA who he had drifted apart from – taking the opportunity both to mend fences and put Cimino’s hard rock chops to use.
While the three instrumentalists provided some excellent musicianship, the magic ingredient for Addicted came in form of ex-THE GATHERING singer Anneke van Giersbergen. “I had always imagined big, joyous metal anthems with a strong female component,” Townsend shares in Only Half There. Van Giersbergen had been in Townsend’s orbit as a labelmate on Century Media in the ‘90s, but it was her live cover of Hyperdrive from Devin’s Ziltoid The Omniscient album that made it clear she was the extra voice he needed. Townsend and van Giersbergen’s similarly powerful voices complemented each other brilliantly, providing Addicted with a yin and yang approach to its vocals.
With personnel in place and performances wrapping up, the next focus was getting the album to sound as big as the ones that inspired it. Initially reaching out to Randy Staub (of METALLICA and NICKELBACK fame), Townsend quickly learnt that the type of engineers he wanted were way out of his budget. Instead, Townsend would have to take matters into his own hands and mix Addicted himself. From the walls of guitars to the DEADMAU5 inspired electronic layers, getting all the disparate elements to coalesce was a time consuming and difficult process. Ever the perfectionist, Townsend concludes, “Although it wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be, it was all clear … I could hear everything.”
From the party metal of Bend It Like Bender!, the spacey drama of Supercrush! or the subdued power balladry of Ih-Ah!, Addicted remains one of Townsend’s most accessible albums to date. At points, it is a record with a foot firmly rooted in Devin’s past. Hyperdrive resurfaces, transformed from cosmic melancholy to outright power anthem thanks to van Giersbergen’s electric performance. Resolve (tellingly, originally called Wild Hearts) liberally pulls melodies from Vanilla Radio by THE WILDHEARTS, a band Townsend had toured with and even briefly joined at one point. There are even allusions to STRAPPING, with Awake!’s bellows of “get up” ripped straight out of Wrong Side.
But at the same time, Addicted also laid the groundwork for the next decade of Townsend’s career. Musically, it provided a blueprint for the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT’s future after the initial four album project, a thread clearly connecting it with 2012’s Epicloud and 2015’s Sky Blue. Personnel wise, the supporting cast of Beav and Van Poederooyen would become core components of DTP until its demise, and even van Giersbergen would remain a frequent collaborator throughout its lifespan. In both processing and championing elements of his past, Addicted ultimately saw DEVIN TOWNSEND forge a new path for what would turn out to be the most successful period of his career to date.
Addicted was originally released on November 17th, 2009 via HevyDevy Records/InsideOut Music.
Like DEVIN TOWNSEND on Facebook.
The post HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Addicted – Devin Townsend Project appeared first on Distorted Sound Magazine.
