If I haven’t stressed this enough I do consider myself a fan of Devin Townsend’s works. It is a bias to consider when reading this review. Admittedly I ordered the album in hopes of comparing the record to the digital album, only to find the vinyl album won’t be sent until sometime in May. Lesson learned…
I still managed to listen to it on Spotify and what I said about the album on Twitter still stands: those who are long time fans have nothing to fear with this album. While ambitious and full of high stakes it delivers the same overwhelming power and intensity associated with Devin Townsend.
Some fans may notice some familiar trademarks in Townsend’s songs reminiscent of albums like TERRIA or INFINITY. Songs like “Castaway” , “Spirits Will Collide”, and “Singularity” offer some familiar ground for longtime fans. While all the songs contain sounds from nature, these songs in particular blend nature sounds with powerful drums and guitars. When backed by the orchestral music it adds the perfect nuance for these songs as well as songs like “Requiem”. Unfortunately this is where I also find lots of criticism.
It is very clear what type of message Townsend wanted to convey, but at times certain elements are too much or don’t add the desired effect. There are times the “soft” parts aren’t well executed. Instead of a soft tone to serve as a narration (or, dare I say, chorus?) we get something which sounds canned and, in the case of the choir, hard to understand at times. This is definitely the case of “Why?” and could have been solved by instructing the choir to have better diction (I watched the live stream of the choir’s recording. They lacked diction). That wasn’t the only thing problematic about the album.
While all of this came together for a rich, textured, world building experience it felt like it wasn’t fully developed. The theme of telling a story is brought up as often as the phrase “I am” throughout the album, but there is little follow through. The song “Sprite” is a great example. I suppose one could argue in the case of “Genesis” the story is ongoing, but basic storytelling implies the reader only get a portion of the ongoing story anyway. The end of the story is just a stopping point to an otherwise ongoing story. The best way to fix some of this is to have one story per song with each character mentioned a main character to the plot. At the risk of being stoned to death there are a plethora of albums that pull off the same thing with a stronger effect. A couple of albums that exemply this are JOE’S GARAGE by Frank Zappa and THE WALL by Pink Floyd. For something that doesn’t fully give a proper ending and plays with conflict and world building TOMMY by The Who serves a great example. Even AMERICAN IDIOT by Green Day, for better or for worse, manages to tell a story with several subplots and characters with similar elements to EMPATH.
Then again TOMMY was panned by some critics when it was released. Some critics felt JOE’S GARAGE fell short for the same reasons EMPATH does in my opinion. Despite my views as a critic Townsend still delivers a world full of love, hope, as well as looking darkness and overwhelming intensity. Each song still leads the listener into a feeling, a state, that overlooks all the pitfalls that come with this album.
Shi's Music Reviews 