Devin Townsend – Powernerd – VÖ: 25.10.24

Devin Townsend

Der Prog-Veteran Devin Townsend beehrt uns mit einem neuen Album mit dem schönen Titel „Powernerd“. Passt schon ganz gut auf Devin, finde ich.

POWERNERD – Substantiv

1. – Eine Person jeglichen Geschlechts, die durch Hartnäckigkeit und Ausdauer etwas, was die Gesellschaft als „Schwäche“ ansehen mag, in eine Supermacht verwandelt hat.
2. – Ein verdammt cooler Typ.
3. – Du.

Devin Townsend hat kürzlich sein neues Studioalbums „PowerNerd“ für den 25. Oktober 2024 ankündigt. Die Karriere von Devin Townsend besteht aus vielen verschiedenen Epochen. Er war der Kopf von Strapping Young Lad, der Dreh- und Angelpunkt des Devin Townsend Project und der Co-Architekt des Country-Duos Casualties of Cool, während er gleichzeitig sein produktives und gelobtes Soloprojekt weiterführte. Mit ‚PowerNerd‘ beginnt eine neue Ära für den Alleskönner.

Heute präsentiert er seine neue Single „Gratitude“ zusammen mit einem Video, in dem Devin durch die wunderschönen kanadischen Wälder streift. Schaut es euch jetzt hier an:

Formate

PowerNerd“ wird in verschiedenen Formaten erhältlich sein, darunter ein limitiertes 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook (mit dem Album, Bonustracks und Devins erstem Dolby Atmos Mix), ein limitiertes 2CD Digipak in einer O-Card, Standard CD, Gatefold 2LP und ein digitales Album.

Das Artwork des Albums wurde von Travis Smith, einem langjährigen Mitarbeiter, entworfen.

„PowerNerd“ ist nicht nur ein Ausdruck von Stärke in schwierigen Zeiten, sondern öffnet auch die Tür zu Devins unmittelbarer Zukunft. Bald soll PowerNerd durch den Nachfolger „The Moth“ – selbst beschrieben als “orchestral, over-the-top, dark and uncomfortable” – und die ‘“alien weirdness” des finalen „Axolotl“ kontrastiert werden. Beide Werke sind bereits im Kasten, und zusammen wird die Trilogie die verblüffende Bandbreite dieses Mannes zum Ausdruck bringen.

Das hat Devin zu „Powernerd“ zu sagen

Devin comments: “Gratitude is a simple song in the vein of ‚Life‘ or ‚Stagnant‘ (from Ocean Machine and Terria, respectively) that acts as a simple way to continue the theme of PowerNerd. During the making of this album, there were a lot of hurdles that we went through as a family, and the tendency to look at ones lot in life from the vantage point of being a ‚victim‘ seems to be an easy hole to fall into. I wrote this song during a very difficult time, yet the idea of gratitude is not meant to be ironic in any way. I’m grateful for the lessons, I’m grateful for the swings and roundabouts of life, I’m here for it. Retaining equilibrium during challenging times is a job in and of itself, and in a sea of nihilistic thoughts, having ones creative output as a tangible expression of gratitude is in many ways the whole point for me at this stage. In any event: I feel like I’m dumb as a rock, and life is so incredible and absurd, that I just feel the urge to say ‚Thank you‘ for all of it. If the quality of people who surround me and this work is of any indication, we’re pointed in the right direction. Thanks =)”

“It was a conscious thing,” Devin says of his brand-new album, the music on which he wrote in just 11 days. “I thought, ‘I’ve spent so much time overthinking every aspect of my work – what would happen if I didn’t?’ Maybe I would have the opportunity to be a bit more direct with what it is that I’m trying to do. I really wanted to see if I could cut through some of the meandering.”

However, that aggression is far from the only thing to come from PowerNerd’s 11 episodic tracks. ‘Dreams of Light’, by comparison, is an evocative and dynamic four-minute ballad. ‘Younger Lover’ calms down from an explosive opening to lush verses of synths and singing, whereas ‘Falling Apart’ adds texture after texture on top of a dulcet, acoustic introduction. Where PowerNerd’s music was written in less than a fortnight, its lyrics were refined over a far longer period of time into a narrative about strength and healing. On ‘Falling Apart’, Devin commands himself to “keep the tension under control”. “You’ve got to believe that things will only get better,” subsequent song “Gratitude” powerfully declares. These uplifting messages even play into the record’s title.

Devin offers as a definition: “I would say that a powernerd would be somebody that has a tendency that society has deemed weak or not valuable, whether that’s empathy or being an insular person or an introvert, and turns that into a type of personal power. It’s like, ‘OK, yeah, I’m sensitive to this, that and the other thing, but man, I am going to pull through! I am going to do things with that sensitivity that are rooted in strength.’”

Tracklist
 1. PowerNerd
 2. Falling Apart
 3. Knuckledragger
 4. Gratitude
 5. Dreams of Light
 6. Ubelia
 7. Jainism
 8. Younger Lover
 9. Glacier
10. Goodbye
11. Ruby Quaker