The message is: THERE IS NO MESSAGE

#143484 by danceswithchickens
Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:44 am
Eyesore wrote:
bobbyjointritual wrote:
Noodles wrote:I'd be interested in hearing how someone related all of the songs to Adam and Eve :)

me too. how do they explain canada?

Definitely ain't eden. :lol:


Hey, shuttup!

#143557 by Grimview
Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:53 pm
danceswithchickens wrote:
Eyesore wrote:
bobbyjointritual wrote:
Noodles wrote:I'd be interested in hearing how someone related all of the songs to Adam and Eve :)

me too. how do they explain canada?

Definitely ain't eden. :lol:


Hey, shuttup!

If he's been to East Vancouver... he is technically right. :P Though most of BC is pretty damn beautiful. The Vancouver area has... more than a few bad parts. :P

#143908 by HauntingTheHoly
Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:01 am
EDIT: This link doesn't take you directly to the Terria review page, no clue why not. Maybe someone else can figure it out. Just search for "Devin Townsend" and you'll find the reviews for Terria, read below first.

http://www.metal-archives.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=4bbb084417ca6c9c2250447ce42a2cd8


Check out the review by "Minion" in December of 2003. Could this be where this Adam and Eve idea originated? Or did Minion get the idea from somewhere else? Hmmmm.....

It's funny it was FOREVER ago when I read the Terria reviews at Metallum, but when I read "Adam and Eve" in this thread, I remembered that I'd come across the idea way back then on that site - probably b/c of how absurd it seems. He may as well have said "This album is about empty glasses of iced tea at the bottom of the ocean." Right?
#144104 by the-fluke
Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:10 am
danceswithchickens wrote:Terria is in fact an album about normal, everyday life; specifically, the things that Devin was missing out on due to his quick rise to relative fame in the music world. It's about walking the dog, taking out the trash...or the beginning and end of the universe, depending on how you interpret it :lol:


I kinda got this vibe aswell.

For clarification on this point, refer to lyrics of Nobody's here and Stagnant.

#144194 by danceswithchickens
Wed Mar 28, 2007 9:27 am
If Terria is about Adam and Eve, then maybe Punky Bruster is the story of Noah's Ark...

#144353 by Goat
Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:45 pm
Punky Bruster is about Jesus feeding the masses with three loaves of bread. Punky Bruster fed the masses with three riffs. :D

#144395 by the-fluke
Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:00 am
danceswithchickens wrote:If Terria is about Adam and Eve, then maybe Punky Bruster is the story of Noah's Ark...



"The chords they came in 3 at a time...."

#144422 by Goat
Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:13 am
Damn, I meant three chords riffs. Stupid. :roll:

#149965 by Beelzebobo
Sun May 20, 2007 12:48 pm
Devin's albums seem to be a stream of consciousness affair. General themes abound, but never concepts (except PB and Ziltoid). His albums are kind of like non-sequitor rants, even when they're not angry.

#150004 by Guitarzan
Sun May 20, 2007 5:51 pm
How would you theme all of Devy's albums then? So far we've got

SYL=war
Alien=bipolar disorder
Terria=cherishing everyday life
Accelerated Evolution=relationships
Synchestra=introspection/soulsearching/closure, finding peace with God

/w Ziltoid and Punky being the only 'concept' albums.

What about OM/Infinity/Physicist/City/The New Black?

With OM I get a lot of dark vibes, a lot of thought about life and moreover death, and an overall sense of being alone. Infinity seems like a painstaking search for God and meaning. Physicist is putting everything in perspective by realizing the hugeness of it all and the fact that we are just creatures on a single planet in the universe, and finding peace in that.

City seems dark like OM but in a completely different way-the chaos of a City environment surrounds the album, with themes of great and sudden change, drugs, and an overwhelming sense of isolation despite being amongst many people. The New Black seems exactly like what Devin said it was, being a band that's fitting in where it shouldn't fit in, and the artistic uncertainty that comes with that (woke up screaming on the wrong side of the head/etc).

HAARHT doesn't seem to take on a theme, as Devy said "it's basically a collection of demos."

And it's a longshot but what about the ambient albums? Anybody think either of those had an overarching theme? Discuss.

Re:

#237710 by Knotrice
Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:49 am
Guitarzan wrote:How would you theme all of Devy's albums then? So far we've got

SYL=war
Alien=bipolar disorder
Terria=cherishing everyday life
Accelerated Evolution=relationships
Synchestra=introspection/soulsearching/closure, finding peace with God

/w Ziltoid and Punky being the only 'concept' albums.

What about OM/Infinity/Physicist/City/The New Black?

With OM I get a lot of dark vibes, a lot of thought about life and moreover death, and an overall sense of being alone. Infinity seems like a painstaking search for God and meaning. Physicist is putting everything in perspective by realizing the hugeness of it all and the fact that we are just creatures on a single planet in the universe, and finding peace in that.

City seems dark like OM but in a completely different way-the chaos of a City environment surrounds the album, with themes of great and sudden change, drugs, and an overwhelming sense of isolation despite being amongst many people. The New Black seems exactly like what Devin said it was, being a band that's fitting in where it shouldn't fit in, and the artistic uncertainty that comes with that (woke up screaming on the wrong side of the head/etc).

HAARHT doesn't seem to take on a theme, as Devy said "it's basically a collection of demos."

And it's a longshot but what about the ambient albums? Anybody think either of those had an overarching theme? Discuss.


I think of Ocean Machine as being a story about inescapable death. City, I see as someone's negative perspective on society (every song on the album supports this, save maybe Detox, Home Nucleonics, and AAA, which all seem to be a bit more personal). What really makes me think are the real lyrics to Velvet Kevorkian, particularly "can you believe this shit people", "a new time", and "welcome the fuck home". Physicist, to me, is a love story of sorts. Can't say about Infinity or the ambient ones, haven't got them yet.
#242430 by static2
Wed Jun 23, 2010 7:56 am
The Lodge wrote:Wait, wasn't it about Canada?

yeah dudes, check wikipedia: Townsend was inspired one morning while driving across Canada with his band, and looked to write an "introspective" album dedicated to his homeland.

it's even REFERENCED. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terria#cit ... l-200111-4


i guess that's everyday for Canadians, eh? ;)

Ocean Machine seems to correlate city imagery and ocean imagery. this makes sense given the title of the record - the city and the ocean are both kinds of "biomechs," since they're made of machine-like processes by natural things (people and water/ocean life) in waves (of people in the city and, obviously, of water). the whole sound of the record comes in busy waves; the underlying currents of news broadcast-like talking in "Sister" and "3 A.M." come to mind as examples. even the guitar chords in "3 A.M." come in waves.

when OM sleeps on the beach, City stays awake on the rooftops. brother and sister records, definitely (they did come out within a year of each other - like Alien/Accelerated Evolution), and something that flows out of the anger on HAARHT (see "AAA" as a 'prequel' to "SYL" and the general "get the fuck out of my way!" message all over City as a follow through from the anti-corporate message of "SYL"). the anger and frustration of city swarmlife - something beautiful on OM, from a 'zoomed out' perspective - is in focus here.

Infinity seems to follow the mental/emotional journey DT was on at the time (the whole Christ complex thing). insanity (or super sanity?) and its extremes and the kind of understanding they can offer, at least after going through the craziness.

i don't know about Fuzzicist. the lyrics all seem to be about letting things be as they are/will be; a really zen-like, natural message. but it doesn't really sound like that! it sounds like a spaceship falling apart, and you can tell it's got a real SYL vibe and that it grew out of the Jason Newsted collaboration. not sure where to take the theme of it.

SYL has been covered as the war-themed record. i don't really know where else to take it!

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests