Devin Townsend

Infinity (Hevy Devy)
by Martin Popoff

Canada’s greatest metal treasure returns with a record that nearly killed its mentally-unhinged creator, our boy Devin Townsend locking himself in his studio for months on end to come up with this electricity-drenched, sunlight-dappled, metal munch of joy. Much like his accessible-to-a-degree Ocean Machine project, Infinity piles on fantastic studio trickery, but subtly so, Townsend allowing the core melodies to shine through the mayhem, tracks like the phosphorescent “Christeen” and the rousing “War” sounding like Enuff Z’Nuff bastardized by Trent Reznor, Cheap Trick vandalized by Ministry, or Saigon Kick’s helicopter in a sparks-a-flyin’ collision with an electrical tower. In-jokes also arc, spark, and fly, as in the Zappa-esque epilepsy of “Ants” and the Crüe-ballad intro to “Colonial Boy.” All told, it’s another mad professor Dev-fest, the perfect balance between his Strapping Young Lad-ishness and something pleasurable indeed: Art, science, and glorious metal noise tingled and touched by a dalliance of genius.
(PO Box 153 Maple Ridge, BC, V2X 7G1 Canada)