Infinity - Devin Townsend (1998)
Devin Townsend does it all. Multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, composer, and highly gifted singer.
After spending most of the 90s recording in both solo-project and band contexts under several different aliases (primarily recording noise metal as the occasionally a band / occasionally studio project Strapping Young Lad), he found he’d hit a wall with his mental health and took time to put himself back together.
What resulted was Infinity, a strong set of accessible songs played loudly and with great precision by Townsend and a handful of contributors.
While there’s a lot of clamoring noise all over the place, it’s always treated as flavor and texture and never as a bludgeoning instrument like it had been on many of Townsend’s previous albums.
Tracks like Christeen are just plain pop candy, but still feature plenty of sonic boom in the production and crisp, well-defined guitars.
Bad Devil is probably my favorite track here, where a figure from a Bach toccata gets churned into a massive blues rock shuffle that also includes something sounding like the Muppet Show theme and some harmonic material that reminds me of Green Day.
Later Townsend releases would veer across different styles and genres, but this is kind of the wheelhouse he’s stayed in over the years, and it’s a great example of what he can do.
