“A stained heart is a strong start.“
It’s been just short of ten years since Devin Townsend first mentioned wanting to create a symphony about dicks and vaginas called The Moth, and it’s finally here. Yes, you did read that correctly. Devin Townsend likely needs no introduction to anyone in the prog metal space, or even in the metal space at large. Almost everyone has seen that iconic performance of “Kingdom” on EMGtv, or that legendary performance of “Deadhead” at the Royal Albert Hall. Throughout his incredible 32-year-long career, the genre bending mastermind has released 31 albums across his many projects. These include the industrial thrash-death metal group Strapping Young Lad, alt-country outfit Casualties of Cool, a brief stint as Ocean Machine, The Devin Townsend Band, Devin Townsend Project, or just Devin Townsend nowadays. Whatever moniker he resides under he has been through many a metamorphosis as a solo artist, and he has once again come out of his cocoon with The Moth.
Devin Townsend fans know the extent of the mythos surrounding this project and the long wait it took for us to get here. In between that memorable interview and now, Townsend released the album Empath, an incredibly dense but heartwarming amalgamation of every aspect of his career so far. The Moth does what Empath accomplished and turns it up to 11. It’s grander, more epic, and more ‘Devin Townsend’than you could possibly imagine. It’s a continuously evolving piece in the form of an enormous scale progressive metal rock opera. It’s not the first time Townsend has utilised orchestra in his work, with it being a big part of Empath’s core sound. For The Moth he has enlisted a star-studded cast of collaborators. These include The North Netherlands Orchestra, longtime collaborator Anneke Van Giersbergen, Lynn Wu of chinese prog metal band OU, and none other than the man that kickstarted Devin Townsend’s illustrious career, Steve Vai.
The Moth could be considered Townsend’s life work, his magnum opus, the album that he has always needed to make as definitive proof of his metamorphosis. Though it’s not as scary as it seems, The Moth is 24 tracks long with many of them sitting at under three minutes long and some even below a minute. It’s a very unconventionally structured album, but it works in favour of the listening experience, as it waxes and wanes through themes of internal struggle and the journey through. Townsend has been relatively open about his struggles with depression, addiction and coming to terms with oneself, and it’s quite clear that he has bared his heart and all its life’s lessons throughout.
Something immediately noticeable from the outset is how incredible the production has been rendered on this album. Townsend is a producer as well as a musician, and he’s become relatively famous for his signature “wall of sound” technique, despite this his recent releases have drawn mild criticisms for their production. The Moth is a prime example of this production style mastered and executed with perfect precision. The pounding guitars, the monumental orchestra, the superb choir and Townsend’s iconic voice all resonate in perfect harmony with one another throughout its raging rapids and serene vistas. As the album begins with “Semi-prologue”, you immediately understand the vast difference in quality that real symphonics and great production are offering here. It’s a bewitching start, as exquisite woodwind and strings compliment Townsend’s divine serenade and refined belting.
The opener is a beautiful aria, but it’s not until the second track “War Beyond Worlds” that we get a real tone setter for the rest of the album. Unsettling strings and pounding war drums lead us into a frenetic anthem that feels like it’s on the verge of an anxiety attack. Townsend’s unorthodox lyrical structure on these types of tracks really adds to the fidgety and back and forth nature of this track, the lyrics are less like a poem and more like a madman’s ramblings to its benefit.
“Covered By Causes” is the longest track on the album hitting an easy eight minutes that flies by. Beautifully performed harmonies between van Giersbergen and Townsend fill the first half of this track with some delicate acoustic guitar playing and low-key strings in accompaniment. The halfway mark brings us the first appearance of Wu, singing in her native tongue. It’s an incredible switch up of tone and style that brings with it a fantastic escalating crescendo. The repeating lyrics “So triumphant, hearts on fire” and “Arise and conquer the morn” take up a large portion of the second half driven by the once again magnificent orchestra and guitar.
Oddball track “Lexin” plays around with strange vocal effects, squelching electronics and drums that decide they don’t want to conform to normal song structure any more. These elements make it stand out from the pack as a track less motivated by the orchestra and more so by its sheer weirdness. The next few tracks are very short yet continue to unfold Townsend’s inner struggles. These come in the form of the pained shrieks and synths reminiscent of Ziltoid: The Omniscient on “A Proxy For God”, and the whimsical waltz of “The Mothers” with a lovely Synchestra reference thrown in. Throughout the entire album, Townsend plays with this acute level of sonic whiplash, as if the devil and angel on your shoulders are fist fighting like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robots.
Double single and album highlight tracks “Prepare For War” and “The Big Snit” both harbour absurdly great moments that emphasise the sheer magic Townsend has managed to conjure. The prior track is a tense yet forward moving march with Townsend at the forefront, yet the shift at the halfway mark led by Wu into a crazed blast beat and orchestral explosion is chills-inducing. The latter track is a riff filled, winding coil until it bursts open into Townsend’s screams, panicked strings and pounding double bass pedal.
Effectively the closer of the album and the engine to hit home the resolution of The Moth, ‘Stained Heart’ is a fantastic and emotional Townsend and van Giersbergen duet reminiscent of fan favourite track “Grace”. The repeating lyrics “A stained heart is a strong start” is not just tear-jerking, it’s a very poignant message in today’s world. It’s increasingly difficult to feel a morsel of hope, feeling like you’re past your prime or that you’re too troubled to achieve your goals or get through your struggle. Devin Townsend and The Moth are evidence that self acceptance, fighting your inner turmoil and landing on your feet are achievable no matter what. Everyone can go through their own metamorphosis.
Track twenty-four is an orchestral swell, affectionately named “We Don’t Deserve Dogs” You can imagine Townsend and crew giving a big bow to you, the listener, as the album closes. It’s nice that the record doesn’t finish with a ham-fisted climax at the end of an album that could’ve overstayed its welcome very easily. It’s so like him to end his epic symphony full of inner turmoil and the pain that comes from struggle with a notion that dogs are the best, actually.
A criticism you could potentially draw from this experience is that it is barely a metal or rock album at all, the lack of riffs and solos might make the average metal listener wince with confusion. But this is a Devin Townsend album, and expecting it to be anything other than different is a fools game. Devin Townsend does what Devin Townsend does – he’s an artist that has been constantly creating and forever evolving with unflinching creative vision for over 30 years. Townsend as a visionary and all-round incredible personality is what makes him and his music so magnetic and magical.
The Moth is not an easy listen. It is a twenty-four track long behemoth that ebbs and flows through the stages of loss, grief, and the inner battle towards true acceptance of the self. Even if orchestral metal is not your thing, it’s impossible to discredit the creative prowess and level of musicianship on display in The Moth. Devin Townsend has executed his vision with perfect precision and grace, giving every movement the space that it needs. Every performance on The Moth has been meticulously cultivated, and given the correct environment in order to flourish in splendour. It really feels like the journey that he undertook in order to reach this point has granted him complete clarity of the self and a new lease on life. As he bares it all on The Moth, it gives the album such poignancy and importance in today’s world. Those of you willing to embark on the journey from caterpillar to moth alongside Devin Townsend will surely find salvation, self-acceptance and sentiment within this spectacularly sublime symphony.
