Alright. For the longest time, I wondered what Devin meant by saying how he spent so much time adding hidden things on the Terria record that apparently were "so cool" but barely noticable at all and that it was a real bummer since a lot of time was spent on it. And seeing how I'm always popping Dev's records when I get stoned, I shut myself in my room with headphones on and let that record play.

Halfway through the record, I stopped listening to it because it was too overwhelming. I couldn't believe Devin spent so much time on this. To cite one example: On "Deep Peace", right at the beginning or somewhere halfway between the bridge right before the solo starts, the sound of water from a river or something is right there with the music. It's hard to hear it. Very hard. I don't know how many different melodies there are playing in the background. Devin speaks to you sometimes. If your deep within the record, his voice suddenly says something.

He spent a year working on Terria and I finally discovered what he meant by the time spent on it and the life behind the sounds. I recommend anyone to try and check them out. In danger of sounding as if I'm about to tell every Dev fan to smoke some pot in order to do this, headphones and time alone works as well, though being stoned works like a charm. I highly recommend it!

[Blazingmonga]

Absolutely...there are so many samples and noises hidden deep inside, I think if you try and focus on them all you can drive yourself crazy and forget about the music.

Have you listened to the Terria bonus tracks 'Humble' or the end of 'Universal' with headphones on? Though humble is just a joke song, the ambient section at the end of it is mindblowing! You can see what drove him to make an album like Devlab. The end of Universal is the same....even in seemingly random/white noise there is so much going on.

Yep.

There is some noise at the end of "Mountain" and "Fluke", too!
I can't tell if "Ocean Machine" or "Terria" are my favorites... Fantastic album!

I'd love to hear one of the tracks from terria with the main music stripped from it so i could clearly hear all the shit going on in the background. That would be awsome.

Though humble is just a joke song, the ambient section at the end of it is mindblowing!

So there's more to it than just looping the last bit? I confess I never managed to sit through it more than twice or so...

[Blazingmonga]

Though humble is just a joke song, the ambient section at the end of it is mindblowing!

So there's more to it than just looping the last bit? I confess I never managed to sit through it more than twice or so...

There is a seemingly infinite amount of layers. You can hear voices and the dripping of water and a whole bunch of other stuff.

This is precisely why Terria is my all-time favorite album (well, that and all the awesome guitarwork and vocals), and why most people on their first listen don't think anything special of it. I must've listened to this CD about 500 times in its entirety and I'm still discovering new layers and subtleties in it. Especially when, like a_random_person, you get stoned and lock yourself in a dark room with a good pair of headphones.

In fact, it's about bedtime so I think I'll do that again right now

the amount of stuff on Terria really amazes me, and it makes songs like the supposedly simple acoustic starting of "Deep Peace" turn into this super deep conglomerations of crazy noises... you definitely need to listen to Terria on high volume to truly understand it's depths

Sweet....

Now all I have to do is figure out 'infinity'. The thickness of so many layers of vocals, guitars, and ambience all stacked together with some weird energy is just........*nosebleed*

For the record, I am SO glad Dev is totally doing his own thing. Definetely one of my all-time fav. musicians, period.

And for another random point, 'two weeks' or what I call a DTB teaser really got me anticipating his next solo record a lot. Can't wait to hear Vai play (or sing if he does) on it!

infinity took on all whole weird thing when I thought of the fact that Dev was manic depressing while recording it.

Sweet....

Now all I have to do is figure out 'infinity'. The thickness of so many layers of vocals, guitars, and ambience all stacked together with some weird energy is just........*nosebleed*

For the record, I am SO glad Dev is totally doing his own thing. Definetely one of my all-time fav. musicians, period.

And for another random point, 'two weeks' or what I call a DTB teaser really got me anticipating his next solo record a lot. Can't wait to hear Vai play (or sing if he does) on it!

Vai's playing on the new DTB record? I don't like the sound of that.

It's a rumor. Well see what happens with that...

And for another random point, 'two weeks' or what I call a DTB teaser really got me anticipating his next solo record a lot. Can't wait to hear Vai play (or sing if he does) on it!

What I remember hearing was that Vai was going to play on a song on the new DTB album and that Devin would sing on a new Vai record. But, Real Illusions just came out and Devin is *not* on it, so I kinda think this was more of a "Yeah, let's do that" kinda thing but that it probably won't happen.

And, personally, I sorta hope that the stuff that Devin did for the Ayreon album is a teaser for the next album. Those bits that he's on are just awesome! Especially that part where he sings about rage on "Day 3: Pain". God, when I hear that my heart just leaps in my chest. It's like the song was in black and white and suddenly bursts into color. It's such a bummer when it goes back to the normal song. The same goes for "Day 8: School," it's just beautiful. "Day 16: Loser" is pretty brutal and totally has that SYL vibe (at least Dev's part) From what I understood, Devin wrote and recorded and produced his parts, that Lucassen just gave him the outline and that Devin did the rest. So, it was original to him in that sense.

Absolutely...there are so many samples and noises hidden deep inside, I think if you try and focus on them all you can drive yourself crazy and forget about the music.

Have you listened to the Terria bonus tracks 'Humble' or the end of 'Universal' with headphones on? Though humble is just a joke song, the ambient section at the end of it is mindblowing! You can see what drove him to make an album like Devlab. The end of Universal is the same....even in seemingly random/white noise there is so much going on.

Yep.

You're right about the ambient section at the end of Humble. It's so big in sound and when I listen to it, I swear I can hear Devin very, very faintly in it...kind of like I'm listening to an EVP recording. It kinda scares me sometimes when I listen to it...by the way, is Devin poking fun at Van Morrison with those corny little ramblings right before the ambient section in Humble?

You know, I always loved the ending of "humble" but I never actually put much attention to the gazillion ambient noises until recently. I may be mistaken but I could swear I hear "There is no need for nostalgia, everything is still happening/that bump in your armpit was cancer/etc.". It did kind of drive me insane trying to figure it out because it seemed to repeat itself with the rhythm of my own head. It's almost as if Dev could tell when my ears would pay attention and grab me by surprise just for the sheer heck of it. And those lyrics don't appear on Olives or Mountain but on the booklet, they are there. I've always wondered where they could be found.

I always focus on Terria WAY better when I'm stoned but yeah, sometimes I feel I shouldn't because it does feel as if I'm going crazy. I guess that's Dev's signature, I hear it on all his records.

Vai's latest release didn't have Dev but RI: Reflections is only the first out of 3 I think. So Dev's appearance will come later and Dev himself said that he wrote a song made for Steve and Steve only. Whether or not it will appear of Sychestra I don't know. I hope Dev makes Sychestra as crazy as his usual stuff. DTB is great but AE was pretty straightforward and perfect for performing live. I'm hoping the next record follows the same pattern as OM, Infinity, Physicist and Terrria.

Shit, I need to get Devlab. Maybe then I might really go insane...