23-03-2011 Devin Townsend

Supports: Aeon Zen; Venue: Colossaal, Aschaffenburg (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

The venue was packed with metal heads and hard rockers as I arrived at Colossaal this Wednesday night. Many people even wore Devin Townsend shirts and was more than excited for the show. It seemed like several of tonight’s audience had seen Devin Townsend Project on this tour before.

As opener Devin had a UK band along called Aeon Zen. Aeon Zen are a progressive rock/metal band formed in 2008, led by the only permanent member, vocalist, guitarist, bassist and keyboard player Rich Hinks. To date, they have been praised and heavily featured in the international music press, labeled by Classic Rock Magazine as ‘a strong contender for best newcomer at the very, very least’ and, additionally, as Progression Magazine’s selection for “debut album of the year”. To date, the band have released two studio albums, and have assembled a line-up for live performances. Their second album, titled “The Face of the Unknown”, was released on Time Divide Records on 12th October 2010. All long haired guys except for the keyboarder Aeon Zen played “80s hair metal” with high pitched and drawn-out vocals accompanied by some guitar solos and windmill head banging. The audience loved it and banged along, cheered out loud and sang along, raising their beer glasses to the band and shouting for more. The light was brilliant and the sound was good to. A great opening act, very fitting to what was yet to come: Devin Townsend.

Devin Townsend is a Canadian musician and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2006 and has had an extensive career as a solo artist. After removing himself from the music industry, Townsend cut his trademark hair off and gave up drinking and smoking cannabis. Townsend found it “disconcerting” that he had difficulty writing music without drugs, and that he had trouble identifying his purpose as a musician. He spent a year producing albums in absence of writing, but found it unrewarding and decided to “pick up the guitar and just write”. This began a period of “self discovery” where he learned “how to create without drugs”. Over two years, Townsend wrote over 60 songs, and found that they fit into “four distinct styles”. In March 2009, Townsend announced his plans for a four-album series called The Devin Townsend Project, with the goal of clarifying his musical identity and being “accountable” for the persona he projects to the public. The project’s concept includes a different “theme” and a different group of musicians on each album. The show started out with a funny video on two screens: a puppet was telling some stories and introduced what was yet to come. The audience was watching it magnetized and laughed out really loud after each joke, cheering even more. As the band entered the stage the audience was cheering even louder, going along with every single note Devin played and following every word he said. He had the entire audience in his ban and played with them like only a puppet master could do it. It was simply amazing to see how much control he seemed to have over his fans without them really realizing. He pulled faces and smiled, laughed, pointed at the audience, pointed out different people and played with them. It was almost like seeing a warlock in action, an evil one! There was something about the music that was pulling you into its ban, hard to let lose you followed the music without even realizing it. Your mind was off and out of your control. Absolutely amazing as I have never seen anything like that before. Devin Townsend’s songs were very catchy, so was the music. He moved around a whole lot on the brightly illuminated stage, going back and forth playing his game with his fans. A simply amazing and breathtaking show. You should check out the Devin Townsend Project if you have the chance!