REVIEW: DEVIN TOWNSEND – POWERNERD (2024)

Right at the end of “Powernerd” comes “Ruby Quaker,” a country-flavoured (honestly, think Jason And The Scorchers) ode to Devin Townsend’s morning brew.

Now, look, this reviewer has a mug at work that says, “Coffee is always a good idea,” so I’m down, but it speaks to a greater truth: Devin Townsend is a one-off.

First seen by MV when he was singing with Steve Vai, opening for Aerosmith, then in a death metal band called Strapping Young Lad, who opened for The Wildhearts (who he was in for a spell), he’s one of those blokes who gets bored easily but has a knack for making whatever he does into a slice of something amazing.

Take the title cut here. It’s part prog, part metal, but completely Devin. “Time for life and rock n roll” goes its hook. And you try dislodging it.

“Falling Apart” is a sort of contrast, but no one goes from fragile to a lush crescendo quite like this. Disorientating and yet gorgeous, it is what Townsend loves to do.

He loves to surprise too. For all you expected “Knuckledragger” to perhaps be some sludge, it comes in on the back of what sounds like an 80s Casio keyboard and injects a hypnotic chorus for fun.

It’s tempting to think of Hevy Devy as a kind of professor making music with a lab coat on. Certainly, “Gratitude” has a bit of that in its harmonies, while “Dreams Of Light” floats and drifts through space and time, on a collision course with its companion piece “Ubelia” – and in many ways, they act as the engine of the album as it drives on.

“Jainism” is a helping of modern prog that is as good as any, and the ballad “Younger Lover” is another change in pace – although like so many here, it builds to gargantuan levels, and the sense of theater and drama that his work so often does is in the grandiosity of “Glacier”. These are songs that could fill stadiums.

And just in case you wanted one, there’s a hard rock riff that would make Van Halen blush running through “Goodbye.”

Being a Powernerd is the type of superhero that I could massively get on board with—and if I may say so—the only one I’m truly qualified to be. The trouble is, Devin Townsend has beaten me to it. And given that he’s a genuine genius, he’ll make a better one than me. I’ll wager he’s got a cape and everything.

Rating: 9.5/10