Devin Townsend continues his inexorable march towards World (or at least prog and metal) Domination with T R A N S C E N D E N C E. He does know how to write a good tune and then just go where nobody else dares, or even knows, where to tread.

Like a lot of the finer things in life it has taken me a while to really start getting into this latest offering from the Canadian maestro. Immediate favourites have been track three, Failure, and track seven, Trancendence - now I have been able to relax and give some more time to the album (two or three days away from work!!!) everything is beginning to click.

Anneke van G is indispensible as always and the whole band seems to be pulling together even better than ever - the drumming is particularly impressive this time around as is Devin's guitar work. Maybe not so much of the 'wall of sound' this time around - production is very clean.

Listening to Transdermal Celebration as I write...........just gorgeous..................must get around to disc 2 sometime.......................

If you are into DT's previous work, especially Addicted and Epicloud, you should really go for this.

Update March 2017:

I was fortunate enough to go see Devin and the boys in London just over a week ago where they played Ocean Machine in its entirety (including the scream at the end!) and three songs from Trancendence for an encore - excellent stuff!

I have just ordered the vinyl of this excellent album as well......nothing to do with the fact it was payday last Friday nor that I have been doing a little fine-tuning to turntable and cartridge......

Sweet Jesus on a unicycle, this album is good.

Devin's usual bombastic flair is present throughout, with a good dose of introspection and restraint (especially on the single 'Failure'), leading to a mature feel throughout. The choruses are huge, but never pompous; there are guitar solos(!) which never feel like guitar wankery but serve the song itself.

This is definitely a Devin Townsend Project album through and through, with less of the meandering and drawn out attitude of his solo work; Devin himself describes it as being the culmination of everything he hoped to achieve with DTP, and it shows. The general tone is a hearty mix of Addicted's accessibility and simplicity with Deconstruction's hammer-to-the-face mentality, though it obviously has ties to Epicloud and Sky Blue/Dark Matters as well.

I'd write more, but that'd cut into the time I can spend concentrating on the album!

Standout tracks are Failure, Higher, Transcendence, and Offer Your Light, but the whole album is stellar.

It is hard to pin Devin Townsend to a 'genre,' but chances are most who have heard of him and listen to his music will most likely be from the heavy rock fraternity in one of it's forms. And that's a bit of a shame because right now Devin Townsend is one of the most talented and creative musicians in any field with a breadth and depth that often transcends the artificial groups we label our bands into.

And what an album. Devin Townsend seems to have taken the 'wall of sound,' idea and amped it up to 11. Crunching guitars and soaring vocals, multilayered until you seem to be surrounded by a cliff face of sound. It's heady stuff and best listened to with high volume and the amplifier cracked up as far as you dare.

And it's not all one tone or level either. It alternates with growling heaviness to gentle almost lullaby soothing utterances.

Very much an album that is more like the progressive idea of more or less a single theme where all the songs should be listened to in one go. It's more of a full three course banquet where every item compliments the other than a quick chocolate treat.

If you have already listened to Devin Townsend then you will be very familiar with his style and the way his albums sound. This one is up there with his best and I highly recommend it. If however you have never listened to Mr. Townsend then why not? He is a real talent in the worldwide pool or mediocrity that is pumped out now by the various record labels as throwaway music.

Best thing from Devin for ages. Its a bit of a grower, but what Townsend album isn't. I didn't like sky blue at all so I had low expectations here and thought I'd end up listening to the Demo disk more, but I really like it. It feels solid as an album and carries a similar feel the whole way through despite the tracks being varied, kind of in an Ocean Machineish way. The production is huge and feels heavier than the last few releases and is missing the cheesy catchier stuff - which for me is a good thing.

As much as it pains me that Dev is writing more overproduced, throwaway music these days, Transcendence is still actually rather listenable, and with some cracking hooks dotted around. Not a classic, but it's worthwhile.

Perfection as always, Devin never disappoints. Get the Digipak for a second disc basically giving you another album free. Transcendence is epic and soaring, with Dev's trademark wall of sound. The production is epic, with the drums (in particular) thundering out of the mix.

Holding Patterns (the second disc) is brilliant too - heavier and rockier than Transcendence. Ignore the references to the tracks being demos, don't let that put you off, the production on them is bang on the money.

If you like Devin, you need it. Surely one of the most underrated and talented musicians on the planet. Such a vast sound. Only listened to the first CD so far but disk 1 is worth the ££ alone. As with most of his more recent albums it needs a few listens to comprehend the complexities and get the tunes into your head, but it's a worthwhile endeavour.

Amazing!!! My mate is a big fan of Devin Townsend & I've heard him mention him over the years, but I never really listened to any of his music. But after watching Devin Townsend perform Kingdom on TV I was impressed & had to find out more. Transcendence is EPIC! Already one of my favourite albums to listen to in a long time.

Devin Townsend, c'est l'homme à l'origine de pas loin de 30 albums tout projet confondu en l'espace de 20 ans. L'homme à la productivité exacerbée, à l'image de sa créativité qui ne s'est pourtant jamais estompée. On parle de génie musical, je suis d'accord avec la notion.

Ce nouvel album nous montre où en est Devin aujourd'hui : un homme apaisé qui déroule tout son savoir-faire de manière sereine, avec un metal progressif dont lui seul a le secret. Cet album surpasse Epicloud dans son ensemble, parce que quand on l'écoute d'une traite, on a l'impression de faire un voyage cosmique, comprenant ses périodes de contemplation et ses passages en vitesse lumière.

Bref, cet album est sans faille. Achetez-le les yeux fermés, que vous soyez connaisseur de la discographie du Devin Townsend ou non. Si vous aimez la musique progressive et moderne, c'est un album à posséder. Et si la première écoute ne vous marque pas, accordez-lui une deuxième chance.

Almost all of Devin Townsend's albums have passages in them which can best be described as glorious: think sweeping choruses and epic bridge sections. These melodic passages are part of his musical ethos and a large part of what makes his music appealing to so many people. What makes Transcendence such a great album is that he has stacked it wall to wall with such passages. Every song contains numerous examples of his majestic-sounding chord progressions, vocal melodies, and sonic layering. There are no pop songs on this record. No silly filler tracks like "Lucky Animals". Just one crushing epic after another.

For this recording, Devin checked his sense of humour at the door. Some might the album a little too self-important, a little too steeped in its own grandeur. That would be a fair complaint if the songs weren't so well-crafted and approachable. It really is a joy to listen to, especially on good speakers. Comparing to the other similar-sounding releases of his, I'd say it is up there with Terria and Synchestra, perhaps a notch below Biomech. My favourite tracks are "Stormbending", "Secret Sciences", and "Stars".

As for the bonus disc: it is no secret among fans that some of Dev's best material winds up relegated to these bonus discs (and thank God his label releases them!). The Holding Patterns disc is further proof of that. The songs here are shorter and perhaps a little poppier, more along the lines of Epicloud, than the material on the main disc, but again it has an abundance of epic choruses, and not one song I feel inclined to skip (with the possible exception of "Canucklehead"). Too bad most of these songs are demos with simple programmed drum parts.

All in all, an easy five stars for me.

Ein so großer DTP-Fan bin ich gar nicht. Bisher hat sich mein "Fantum" eigentlich immer auf das großartige Deadhead beschränkt und meinen riesengroßen Respekt vor Devin's hammer Stimme.

Da man die CD aber für ein paar läppische Euronen hinterhergeschmissen bekommt, habe ich mal zugeschlagen.

Und ich muss sagen, dass ich wirklich positiv überrascht war - insbesondere, weil ich doch auch einige eher vernichtende Kritiken dazu gelesen habe. Standard, keine große Entwicklung, dümpelt eher vor sich hin, keine großen Höhepunkte usw...

Vielleicht habe ich den Vorteil, dass ich von DT noch nicht so viel kenne und da unbefangen rangehen konnte.

In jedem fall hat es sich gelohnt. Für mich ist dieses Album eine der Entdeckungen (wenn die nicht die Entdeckung) des Jahres!

Bei 10 Tracks sind mir nur 3 Tracks (1, 3 und 5) aufgefallen, die ich eher als guten Durchschnitt gezeichnen würde. Der Rest ist in der absoluten Oberklasse anzusiedeln. Klar, man muss auf diese Musik und Gitarrenwände mit viel (extrem viel) Reverb stehen, das ist nicht jedermans Sache. Wer dazu aber Zugang findet, wird hier definitiv nicht enttäuscht. Wir bewegen uns auf dem kompletten Album im midtempo bzw. balladesken Bereich (was auch ein Kritikpunkt ist, den ich gehört habe), was aber keineswegs negativ ins Gewicht fällt.

Als besondere Anspieltipps würde ich nennen:

- Stormbending - geht so bisserl in Richtung Deadhead, mit grandiosem Ende

- Secret Sciences - wirklich toller Schluss

- Stars - das erste Lied, das bei mir so richtig gezündet hat. Der Refrain ist einfach ein ekelhafter Ohrwurm :D

- Transcendence - der Titelsong hat ebenfalls einen fantastischen Refrain

- Offer your light

- From the Heart - wahrscheinlich der beste Song auf dem Album. Ballade vom feinsten, da bekommt man einfach nur eine Gänsehaut und kann perfekt das Träumen anfangen

- Transdermal Celebration - ein absolut würdiger Schluss

Von mir eine ganz klare Kaufempfehlung, auch wenn es insgesamt ein klein wenig gedauert hat, bis das komplette Album so richtig gezündet hat.

Conosco Devin Townsend da poco, casualmente. Che scoperta! Ora devo assolutamente avere tutta la sua discografia. Un musicista straordinario, poliedrico, voce potentissima, grande chitarrista. Una "bestia" da concerto, istrionico, ironico, simpaticissimo. Che dire, nella mia lunga vita ho ascoltato di tutto nell'àmbito del rock, Devin mi ha fatto tornare in un baleno ai suoi anni migliori. Il suo epic-trash-death-prog-metal è qualcosa da conoscere! Da sentirlo anche con gli Strapping Young Lad e in un disco di Steve Vai alla voce. Grande Devin!

I've listened to Devin's work since 2003. I've enjoyed the various directions his writing, emotions, and music have taken us. The Devin Townsend Project was a great extension of the vibe on the Addicted record, but I was concerned it would get a bit repetitive following Epicloud and Sky Blue.

Nonsense! THIS is the album that defines the DTP. The flow, the writing, the band cohesion, the musician ship... It all is their best work yet as a group. Ryan's drumming pummels your head, at times with unique fills reminiscent of Gavin Harrison. Beav, Mike and Dave exemplify the aforementioned cohesion, providing solid framework within each song. Dev's vocals soar (or should it read sore with all his insane screams?) as we have grown to expect. His guitar work stands out more on this album than I've noticed in recent releases.

The tracks fit together quite well, yet stand out enough to hold their own. It's hard to not love the power of Truth. The transition of spiritual chanting to blood curdling screams in Stormbending sends chills. Failure is probably the easiest new song to love; it's instantly "Dev", but evolved. I couldn't get behind Secret Sciences live, and I do find it to be the weakest track, but that's simply because it gets a bit too heavy with pop. Still a great segway into Higher, which for me, is the pivotal song. Sonically, it captures the chaos of Dev's past, perhaps his obsession for MORE, then he (sorry) transcends. Simply a great track, my favorite.

The rest of the album continues, through musical representation, the essence of overcoming oneself and celebrating.

I hope this is not the last album the band makes together.