On the 29th of March in 2019, Devin Townsend first solo album in years was released, and to say anything other than amazing would be a crime. Coming in like a Prog Metal juggernaut, it took the fanbase by storm, and wound up being one of his most highest rated releases of last decade. It would make it to no. 3 on my top 5 albums of 2019 list (Read Here), but in the just over 5 years since it came out, I’ve grown to love it even more than I did back then, as it’s healing energies are perhaps needed now more than ever. Upon listening to it again in recent memory, it seemed only right to celebrate the album’s 5-year presence on this planet, so without further delay.....here’s Empath!
Background
Taken from Devin Townsend’s website:
“I have been ‘holding it up to the light’ for the whole process in hope that the effort and difficulty that went into this project ultimately helps people.
My career has spanned several decades and I have been trying to work through the phases that present themselves in order to learn more about myself. I knew that Empath was on the horizon several years back when I became restless in my musical world and began to feel a pull towards something uncompromising. I felt a need to confront a fear of myself on some level if I was ever going to be able to progress as an artist. The result is this album you hold in your hands, and it was a heck of an experience bringing to completion. It is not an easy listen, but I hope my reasons for doing it are clear. It was about taking it all apart and laying it out for myself to take stock of.
I needed to explore a lot of avenues, and it took me to some frightening places. By the end of the process though, the resolution that came from ‘going there’ proved to me that I had become capable of moving past it.
The theme of Empath was always about going into that fear – the uncertainty of life and ‘middle age’ – then confronting it and coming out the other side of it with some sort of realization. Although life is not easy, it can be within us to rise to those occasions that are demanded of us and I wanted to write something that represented many angles of life with an overarching theme that ultimately is one of hope in uncertain times.
In a world that is more divided than ever, Empath was written in order to participate in all those emotions that bubbled up over the past two years without judging them or letting them define the process. I feel that when we do so, we are more able to understand how others, different from us, may feel. Empathy is a trait that seems to be equated to weakness in this day and age, when ultimately it is the one thing that could help us understand each other.
Music, in my opinion, does not come from us individually. Maybe it comes from a collective pool of human experience, and artists ultimately have the job of pulling that from the ether, filtered through our own trip, and then simply trying to do a good job in representing it?
Regardless, I’m proud to be able to play for you all and hope my work in a small way does justice to the inspiration from the infinite source. I am humbled by it. Thank you to the countless people who help and support me on this journey, there’s no conceivable way I could do my part of this without friends, family, co-workers and the audience. It means so much to be able to participate in this and I do not take it for granted. Thank you again.
My intention with representing this music is only to help and honour. I hope you enjoy this and hope you may find some catharsis here. Please take care of yourself and let’s stick around… we can do this. Don’t give up.
With all my love and light.”
Basic Description
You’re Going To Be Okay.
Let’s rewind the clock a bit: it’s March of 2019. By that point, we’ve had a little over 2 years of donald trump, political tensions between both sides was getting hot, a giant majority of us were probably not doing our best, and perhaps most soul crushing of all, us 90s kids were in our early 30s at that point. Coupled with a lot of other political & social factors, it’s easy to see why the whole “Doomer” attitude was really beginning to kick in then, and just this overall blanket of hopelessness getting put on us all. Then, Empath comes out, and just hits a lot of us right in the feels. Devin’s always had a positive disposition on a giant majority of his releases, but this one is perhaps the living embodiment of that word. There’s still some rough patches here & there, but I dare you to find just a single song on here that purposely crushes your soul into a thousand pieces!
Best Track
It is an absolute crime to pick just a single song off of Empath as the best track. From opener to close, you will experience what might very well be the most spiritual thing that Devin has ever crafted, and considering how awe-inspiring a lot of his music was before this is saying something. That being said, if I had to pick a favorite tune, then it’s gotta be Spirits Will Collide. Though the totality of Empath is devoted to the feelings of getting through the worst of things, it’s on this song that the message is most apparent. The instrumentation is loud & bombastic, but there’s immense feelings of hope and comfort with each note. Vocal work is interesting here, as it’s split between a giant choir & Devin himself. HevyDevy does a really good job here, as while he's loud, it's oddly not as overwhelming as you think. Again, any of the songs off of the main album could be put here, but Spirits Will Collide just hits right.
Spirits Will Collide
An of course I gotta point out the Tests Of Manhood tune known as Methuselah. Whereas Spirits Will Collide was loud & bombastic with plenty of emotion, Methuselah funky & soft with plenty of emotion. The instrumentation is played rather ethereally & strange, and Devin’s vocals and rather soft but not in the realm of whispering, & the end result is equal parts weird yet oddly cozy. However, it wasn’t just the more interesting using of instruments & HevyDevy’s singing that got me to really like the song. Here’s the story!
It’s opening night for Avengers: Endgame. My Mom got me & a friend tickets, so I drove up to his place, and then we drove to the nearby mall he lived close to, and to say inside the theater was packed was an understatement. Every seat from all the way in front to the high seats in the back, there were people of all ages watching what is perhaps the truly final good live-action Marvel movie. The credits roll, and we make our way back to his place, and then I went home. I had just gotten Empath about a week prior, and decided to put Tests Of Manhood in the car stereo. I don’t know what it was, but something about driving through the streets at midnight, mixed with the oddly calm vibes from outside the car, made for a weirdly comforting time. Definitely can’t replicate that today!
Methuselah
Worst Track
I hinted at this in my review of Lightwork late last year, wherein I said that it was too calm and relaxing at times. Empath suffers from a similar issue, in that at times it’s too loud for it own good. That feeling is relaxed on Tests Of Manhood somewhat, but on Empath itself? For an album about how it’s going to be okay & not to kill yourself, it’s surprising at just how loud a lot of the songs are. Like on Lightwork this doesn’t make the music bad in any way, but it does clash with how the music is trying to be presented.
Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album & Tests Of Manhood, then click on the links below:
Empath
Tests Of Manhood
Also, interesting fact: Empath cost Devin $100,000 to make (Translated from Canadian & includes Tests Of Manhood), which means that this is HevyDevy’s most expensive record to date at this time.
Overall Impression & Rating
Empath was a massive breath of fresh emotional air for many fans 5 years ago, and oddly enough would act as a piece of body armor for enduring the harsh year after it. Even before all of that plague-ridden time, it was a spiritual bandage for those within the HevyDevy community, who were seeking something to alleviate the mental pain & anguish they were more than likely feeling at that point. Even if you didn’t listen to this back in 2019, I recommend this to you now. If the rest of 2024 gets as bad as I think it might, we’ll need al1 the help we can get.
Empath gets a 10 out of 10. It may have been at my no. 3 spot back in 2019, but the emotional impact & incredible quality makes it a number 1 in my book!
So that was my belated birthday review of Devin Townsend’s end-of-last decade smash that was Empath. Hopefully, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel by the end of this year, but until then we can only wonder. In the meantime, I got a few anime review ideas in the works, so I’ll see you soon!
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