I think the guest vocalists work great and I love the way (at least initially) you don’t really notice the change from Devin to them - the Ihsahn one is incredible in this way. At first, I’d be half-way through Ihsahn’s vocal before saying to myself, ‘oh, that’s not Devin, it’s Ihsahn!’.

thank you. same here.

In general I was extremely surprised by this album as it's much better and far less like SYL than I believed it would.

you must be joking, the SYL reminiscences raise art to a higher level.

you must be joking, the SYL reminiscences raise art to a higher level.

Hmm, I don't believe I was joking. I could justify it if you could explain that last bit of your sentence ('the SYL reminiscences raise art to a higher level'). It doesn't make sense to me in the context of what I wrote! Sorry.

I know this was pages ago but where would be the best place to buy grado 80's online?

I'm pretty sure I just bought mine on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Grado-Prestige-SR ... 724&sr=8-1

The pricing is pretty standard though. I don't know if I have ever seen them on sale anywhere.

Well I finally broke and listened. Devin.... wow. I have waited so long to hear this album and my god I was floored. ZERO disappointment. I won't go into any sort of lengthy review here, but just a few things that stood out to me.
Sweet freaking Jesus I love Stand. It has this continuous beat that just slowly gets more frantic and crazed as the song plows on like the initial descent into madness that is this album. And Mikael Akerfeldt's (spelled right? Hell if I know) contribution, like the rest on the album, is understated but peaks up enough to still be able to tell who it is.
Sumeria I had obviously heard before listening to the album, and I did kind of worry about whether or not the song wouldn't be as "special," I guess, as the rest because I had listened to it before but man... with it's placement at the middle of the album it's like running a freaking marathon or something. In the density of all the music around it Sumeria just seems even more heavy as fuck, and it's like being force fed (in the best way possible) this six and a half minutes of unbridled insanity. When the Paul Masvidal part comes in at the end it's just this totally welcome window of tranquility and peace to give you enough breathing room to digest the rest of the album.
And lastly, of course, the Mighty Masturbator. I seriously think this has to be somewhere in my top five songs Devin has ever made. There's so much going on in this song, it takes so many turns, it has so many different characters like voices darting back and forth in my head (the Ziltoid cameo pretty much made my life), it's just pure Devin-- something only this guy could even think of making. And the like dance breakdown half through has to be one of the coolest song moments that anyone has ever done.
Well, so much for a not lengthy review. But I guess Decon kind of demands it? But really looking forward to further dissecting the album over what is bound to become hundreds of listens, and the toll it's going to take on my one mental health and well being And lastly, totally didn't mind the fart samples on Deconstruction. Pretty fucking funny and, once again, totally Devin I thought. Now onto Ghost....

My thoughts below on Deconstruction and I’d like to start with the negatives.

I think the biggest flaw of the album is it’s indigestibility. It’s like a four course meal of meats and initial listens gave me headaches and nausea - and I mean that literally. It may’ve been the low quality mp3, although I’ve never experienced it before and it has since passed. Besides the complexity, the length of the album doesn’t help - there’s a reason why Slayer’s Reign In Blood is 25 minutes long and most extreme metal albums rarely go beyond 40 minutes. Although I can’t quite figure out the various things Devin says about the reason and concept of this album, if one of them was to overload people with crushing metal to prove he can still do it if he wishes (I think he’s been alluding to this on here) I’m not sure the album was made with the right sentiments and I’m expecting it may backfire in a number of ways, especially if this album is too successful - a ‘when is the new SYL album’ being replaced with a ‘when is a second Deconstruction coming’. I saw recently from FB that the label are already trying to market the album as a ‘what Devin has always wanted to do with SYL’ - I’d say that was annoying for him although I do believe he has been inadvertently courting the sentiments. Regardless, I think his sentiments are important because I find much of the album to be very consciously over-the-top and a bit too forced notably in the longer tracks. For once much of the humour seems quite laboured, notably that cheeseburger/brain stuff and the farts are quite childish and cringey. I think the idea was that ‘serious-types’ are meant to be bothered by these things to prove that very point but the reality is they’re just not funny and definitely have zero resonance. Now, the ‘saving-the-world boots’, having a death metal vocalist scream, ‘we praise satan, he lives inside of our hearts’, and ending The Mighty Masturbator with a choir singing ‘Amen’ - now that’s funny stuff maybe because the irony of it rises the humour to something a bit more sophisticated. Anyway, back to the indigestibility of the album - as I think someone mentioned before I think some choruses could’ve anchored the listener a bit rather than getting lost within songs that at times sound all over the place and complex for the sake of complexity rather than serving some central idea. I find the album good for shopping to or listening to half of it at a time, but giving it a concentrated listen from start to finish is unlikely to happen often with me.


Onto the positives, and there are many but I’ll just highlight a few.

- The mix and production sound incredible - even on shitty mp3s.

- I love the way the choir and orchestra are imbedded in the music. What I mean is most metal albums that use such things like showing them off (Cradle of Filth’s Damnation and a Day or Dimmu Borgir’s Abrahadabra come to mind) but Deconstruction treats them with no more importance than any of the other instruments.

- I think the guest vocalists work great and I love the way (at least initially) you don’t really notice the change from Devin to them - the Ihsahn one is incredible in this way. At first, I’d be half-way through Ihsahn’s vocal before saying to myself, ‘oh, that’s not Devin, it’s Ihsahn!’. This implies he used them at the correct times in the tracks rather than what you usually get which is ‘I’ll randomly pick some verse or chorus for the guest spot as I’m really only interested in using their name to promote the album’.

- The songs Praise The Lowered, Stand and Juular are consistently excellent and although to me, things get a little patchier from there, most songs are peppered with moments of genius. The beautiful bits in Planets (especially the Mew-type bit), the Vengaboys and waltz sections in Masturbator, the musical start and end of Deconstruction and the final minute of Poltergeist. I think the only weak track is Pandemic as maybe it’s too SYL for me - however it is the shortest track - 3.5 minutes of a 70 minute album, so not too much harm done.

- The album definitely grows on you and I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a new album so much with increasing liking of it - I feel I’ll still be getting into it in a year’s time. It’s one of them metal albums that simply must be experienced, a bit like everyone should see 2001 A Space Odyssey just to experience it - it doesn’t matter if you hate it, just experience it at least once. I think this album will be a Devin Townsend cornerstone album for decades to come even though I have some reservations about the consistency of it's overall creative quality.

In general I was extremely surprised by this album as it's much better and far less like SYL than I believed it would. It's weird because I was more looking forward to Ghost and was kinda disappointed by that. I've written a review in the Ghost section.

i very much agree with this review, not totally (i for one can sit thru the whole thing without too much bother)...there are many things on this record that irritate me and many things that are really wonderful, yet the odd thing is that the flaws don't detract for me from glories as much as i would have expected.
I love the guest vocalists, i love that almost elliot smith vocal melody in planets, i love the majestic chorus and vocals of Stand particularly towards the end, i love the death metal opera singer (whose name escapes me atm) in pandemic and the fact that the album shows devs love of so many metal genres.

[swervedriver]

The "BRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAA" bit before the "Save the world" bit in Masturbator cracks me up each time.

...yeah, I've had Deconstruction on constant rotation during the 1200 km drive to Italy last week. The traffic jams were interesting with fart sounds coming full blast out of my car speakers.



With the windows down.

I thought it was "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEINER!" D:

[swervedriver]

WELL CLEARLY THIS NEEDS THOROUGH DISCUSSION THEN



Or not.

I always thought he was saying "WEEEEEEEEEINER" too, but it's funny no matter what he says, and the part that follows is epic as hell.

Thirded on weiner I'm afraid!
Also, listened to Alien today for the first time in ages, holy crap!
Forgot how mind-rapingly dense and violating that album was.
I think I definitely like Decon as much as it, but they are completely different... Decon is much easier to listen to, and much more diverse.
Still, kinda pushed Strapping into the mental closet and forget about it in the excitement of the DTP, but SYL still sounds just as good after Decon, just different (and exhausting).

Thirded on weiner I'm afraid!
Also, listened to Alien today for the first time in ages, holy crap!
Forgot how mind-rapingly dense and violating that album was.
I think I definitely like Decon as much as it, but they are completely different... Decon is much easier to listen to, and much more diverse.
Still, kinda pushed Strapping into the mental closet and forget about it in the excitement of the DTP, but SYL still sounds just as good after Decon, just different (and exhausting).

I can't say I feel too much desire for SYL anymore. Not that I think that music is bad, or anything. I'm just not overly angry, and negative much these days. That's what I thought was so neat about Decon. All of things I loved about that type of metal without all of the negative misanthrope self loathing bullshit that comes with it. It's the only non instrumental really heavy metal album I've found that doesn't put me in a bad mood. I love it for that. I can rock out super hard, AND be happy!

Thirded on weiner I'm afraid!
Also, listened to Alien today for the first time in ages, holy crap!
Forgot how mind-rapingly dense and violating that album was.
I think I definitely like Decon as much as it, but they are completely different... Decon is much easier to listen to, and much more diverse.
Still, kinda pushed Strapping into the mental closet and forget about it in the excitement of the DTP, but SYL still sounds just as good after Decon, just different (and exhausting).

I can't say I feel too much desire for SYL anymore. Not that I think that music is bad, or anything. I'm just not overly angry, and negative much these days. That's what I thought was so neat about Decon. All of things I loved about that type of metal without all of the negative misanthrope self loathing bullshit that comes with it. It's the only non instrumental really heavy metal album I've found that doesn't put me in a bad mood. I love it for that. I can rock out super hard, AND be happy!

Very nicely said. I find the same thing. I love SYL, I mean, it's what got me into Devin and it will always have a special place in my heart because of that. But the times when my mood is so that I can listen to something like Alien are few and far between anymore whereas I can always pick up Ki or Addicted or Infinity or, now, one of the two new albums and listen. Strapping is demanding, and that's not a bad thing, but, like Devin, I find I'm in a good place and Strapping isn't usually the thing I want when I'm in that place. However, have a bad day and you bet your ass Alien or You Suck are the first things I turn to throw on...,

No one hate me for posting again, but I just have to say. The Mighty Masturbator, from the seven minute mark to the twelve (ball parking it) has to easily be the coolest and most genius piece of music I have heard by anyone ever. I just want to dance when I hear it. It won't get out of my head, and I don't mind one bit. I seriously think TMM will go down as one of my favorite songs of all time. I mean if all Decon was just that five minute span it would still be an incredible album. Gah! Loving it. Back to listen to it again....

No one hate me for posting again, but I just half to say. The Mighty Masturbator, from the seven minute mark to the twelve (ball parking it) has to easily be the coolest and most genius piece of music I have heard by anyone ever. I just want to dance when I hear it. It won't get out of my head, and I don't mind one bit. I seriously think TMM will go down as one of my favorite songs of all time. I mean if all Decon was just that five minute span it would still be an incredible album. Gah! Loving it. Back to listen to it again....

No hate. I agree with you there! I the The Mighty Masturbator is one of the craziest, most awesome, badass, fun, emotional, goofy, groovy, satirical, best pieces of music out there. It's got the awesome, almost Celtic Iron Maiden intro with Dev's soft vocals, and and the you feel it build up to this epic crushing moment of "I'm Home!", and it's just like FUCK YES. This is the most epic thing I've heard. Then it goes into the prog rock type thing til the "now comes the time", and that's just like dark sounding-Vampira section, and then it's drops this comical blues progressive mathematical rant about saving the world, and I'm speechless at this point. Then out nowhere, a count down that malfunctions at pi, and takes you to fucking space to this awesome intergalactic rave, and I'm going through this hypnotic dance in my head till that fades away (I love the choir piece in between that section, and the "I want you to" section), and then the "I've fallen down now" part is moving, and makes me laugh (it reminds of the hover round commercials), and then the blast beats just pound you into the ground, and when you get back to the surface, you're at an INFINITE WALTZ CARNIVAL, at this point I wanna leak fluids from every opening in my body(in a good way) while laughing at the goofy circus attractions. Then out it ends with "I AM THE MIGHTY MASTURBATOR", and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN. Woah. Amazing

(Sorry that was just my really long winded way of saying it's one my favorite songs. )

i have, in the last few days, grown a big boner for the song deconstruction. i love how the entire thing is absolutely formless and just continuously deconstructing itself until the end. fucking epic, devin.