OK, I know that Devy is one of a kind, but I have honestly had at least one Devin CD in my CD changer for the last 3 years. I have tried hard to branch out, going from Mastodon to Gojira to Queens of the Stone Age, but Devin just keeps on calling me back. I was wondering if anyone could suggest me a few bands to check out that, like Devin, 1.) Are heavy, 2.) melodic, and 3.) have really great vocals. I'm open to basically anything, and I'll give anything a shot. I can't totally get into growls, but if it's growling/singing, I can bear it a little better (Stand, for example)

Strapping Young Lad

You could check out 'similar artists' on last.fm:
http://www.last.fm/music/Devin+Townsend/+similar
http://www.last.fm/music/Devin+Townsend ... t/+similar
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Devin+Town ... d/+similar
http://www.last.fm/music/Strapping+Young+Lad/+similar

...but it usually starts off by listing stuff that Dev's been involved with, and then the rest is "medium similarity" and lower.

Usually, you'd have to "sacrifice" one of the three (heavy, melodic, great vocals). Examples: Arjen Lucassen and Pain of Salvation are melodic and have great vocals, but are not as heavy.... Gojira and Meshuggah might be heavier, but not very melodic... and Opeth are usually not all three at the same time either.
Tricky.

Usually, you'd have to "sacrifice" one of the three (heavy, melodic, great vocals). Examples: Arjen Lucassen and Pain of Salvation are melodic and have great vocals, but are not as heavy.... Gojira and Meshuggah might be heavier, but not very melodic... and Opeth are usually not all three at the same time either.
Tricky.

Star One can get there at times, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXJmiA05tc

The only blatant Devin Townsend "clones" I know are THE OMEGA EXPERIMENT


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boLKGe0ojC4

Yeah, you'll find yourself drawn back to Dev even if you do find someone else that you like, haha. It's just the way it works. However, maybe here are some that you'd like? Artists and albums.

-The Omega Experiment, as the guy above me mentioned. Singer is a great guy from the forums actually.
-Baroness, though the vocals may not be what you like totally. I recommend you start with Red Album
-Mastodon. I know you already mentioned them but listen to The Hunter if you haven't already.
-The Ocean. I really like Pelagial. There's some growl type singing, but he's got a nice voice too.
-OSI. Office of Strategic Influence or Blood. Singer is the original keyboardist for Dream Theater, Kevin Moore.
-Porcupine Tree. Deadwing, In Absentia, Fear of a Blank Planet. Their early albums are pretty open and experimental, sort of like metal Pink Floyd. If you like that then I recommend The Sky Moves Sideways
-Riverside, Anno Domino High Definition. A bit more mellow, but has it's heavy parts.
-Textures - Dualism. I might get some rolling eyes for this one, I don't know. But I love this album.

Hope if anything you find something new you like.

Edit: Oh jeez, this post is two years old. HAhahaha, well, if you're still around, or if anyone else is curious, here you go. Oh lawd I feel foolish.

You're not the first nor the last to necrothread.
I suppose Contrive have a similar sound; doesn't hurt their last album was mixed by Devin.

Necrothread.. I really like that term, ahaha. I'm totally gonna weasel that into normal conversation somehow. Make it a regular verb. Or some sort of dark mysterious noun. Or tag it in a painting. I don't know. That's just ringing nicely with me right now.

Xerath does get pretty damn close to Devin´s trademark sound, sometimes so that it becomes a bit distracting and obnoxious. But they have heaps of talent so it´s hard to stay mad at them for long. Devin recently gave them a shootout on his Twitter.

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