Oh man. I get to review a Devin Townsend record! Before this goes any further, I should point out that he is my favorite artist of all time and I love pretty much everything he’s ever done. Is this review biased, then? Yes, but let’s be frank, all reviews are. We’re doing this because we like the music. That being said, I’ll do my best not to sound like an obnoxious fanboy during this review.
By now, the man needs no introduction, but I’ll do my best: Devin Townsend is one of the most diverse and prolific musicians in the metal world out there, with a career spanning over 29 studio albums (if you count all the projects he’s helmed over the years) and a very loving and loyal fanbase. While he is first and foremost a progressive metal artist, he’s dipped his toes in thrash, industrial metal, ambient music, new age, country, pop rock and way more stuff. Seems like a lot, right? While he does traverse many genres, it’s easy to spot a Devin Townsend song out there. Whether it’s because of his colossal voice, his iconic guitar tuning or his trademark ‘wall of sound’ production, no matter how out there his music gets, it’s always unmistakably Devin.
After a successful post pandemic run with his last studio album Lightwork, Devin has been full on studio mode for quite a while now, and the first of many projects he’s been working on is finally seeing the light of day: PowerNerd!
This is, in a lot of ways, a ‘middle of the road’ album for him. Most of the initial ideas for PowerNerd came to be while Devin was writing his forthcoming rock opera, The Moth, which is a rather daunting endeavor that he’s been on for the best part of a decade now. So, in the midst of writing some really complicated symphonic stuff, there he was with some straightforward riffs that wouldn’t fit with any of the stuff he was working on, and he became quite enamored with the idea of a simpler, straightforward album, fueled by his love of the hard rock of his early teens. Thus, PowerNerd was born!
Is PowerNerd truly just Devin riffing out and making butt rock, though? Well, it’s still a Devin Townsend record, with a lot of what you’ve to expect from him – the music is expertly produced and it has many layers to its sound design. Songwriting wise, it is indeed a bit more straightforward than most of his output, but it’s far from ‘dumbed down’; there’s still a lot to dig into here. And most importantly, it’s filled with a ton of heart and it’s home to a few of the best songs he’s put out in a long time, maybe even ever if you ask me.
Amongst the many influences Devin had over the years, he’s been a fan of arena rock since his youth and he never hid that – he has a deep love for bands like Motörhead and Def Leppard, and those influences shaped a lot of his music over the years. You can hear it in songs like “Liberation” from Epicloud and “Vampira” from Synchestra, even going as far back as the Accelerated Evolution days in songs like “Slow Me Down” and “Sunday Afternoon”. This kind of music is what PowerNerd leans into, at Dev’s 2024 frame of mind. That being said, there’s way more musical variety in this album than I originally expected.
PowerNerd will surely be a very divisive release among his fans. If you follow Devin for the prog metal and the prog metal only, you will probably feel a bit underwhelmed by most of it. If you weren’t a fan of Lightwork‘s overrall softness and wanted more HevyDevy, you’ll find a bit more riffage, sure, but nothing I’d call aggressive. However, if you, like me, appreciate Devin Townsend for his utmost honesty and authenticity as an artist, there’s a lot you’ll love about PowerNerd.
What’s with the silly name, you may ask? Well, Dev has never taken himself very seriously as many would know, but there’s a concept behind it: following in the vein of Empath and Lightwork, which main themes were to shed light on a particular type of person, the concept of a PowerNerd is a person who is an outcast by society’s standards, but instead of feeling like shit about it, takes pride in their weirdness and lets what makes them unique their superpower. It’s something that Devin himself has always been for most of his career. Despite having this ‘crazy guy’ persona that the general public knows him for, anyone that delves a bit deeper into his work realizes pretty quickly that he’s incredibly vulnerable and open about his feelings. He’s not afraid to own up to his personality to the fullest, and invites you to do the same.
One of the things that make me connect so much to Devin’s music is his ability to write about things that resonate very deeply with me, both musically and thematically. This is the case once again, as the main message of PowerNerd is something I’ve really been needing at this point of my life. So yes, I’m a PowerNerd too and I’m proud of it!
As I’ve said, I was expecting a straight up rock album with PowerNerd, and there’s way more to it than that. In fact, the only two songs that properly fit that bill are the title track and “Knuckledragger”. These two see Devin truly letting out his love for the stuff he grew up with as a teen, both being filled with childlike energy, tongue-in-cheek humor, and powerful reflections that could only come from someone who’s deep into their career at this point. They’re so unpretentious that you can’t help but admire their authenticity – you can tell Devin is having a total blast with them. In a realm filled with so much musical snobbery like prog, he asks you to drop the facade and admit that rocking out for a bit is fun. That’s why the title track was a perfect opener for the overall concept: straight to the point with fast and melodic riffage, “PowerNerd” really is Devin’s vision of a Motörhead track, sonically, and does a lot to pump you up for the rest of the album. My favorite thing about are its lyrics, though, which hammer home the album’s themes. From the uplifting words in its chorus like ‘All those things we say to ourselves/Time to rise, put that shit on the shelf’, to the instantly iconic ‘I love petting the cat’, I feel seen. I love petting my cat too, goddamn it!
“Knuckledragger” is an instant favorite of mine. A delightful burst of energy that’s heavy on the riffing, it’s very poetic how one of the most Def Leppard-esque songs in his career is a critique of ‘macho’ things like heavy drinking. Devin has an old, long-buried past with alcohol and drugs himself, so lines like ‘Don’t wanna think about nothing/I want infinite ways to get away from myself’ hit a lot harder when you realize it’s coming from personal experience. Mix that hair metal energy with a chorus that feels like Epicloud on coke and screams that make you forget that this man is over 50 years old, and you have a total banger of a song. I’d be seriously shocked if he actually brings this one to the live stage, because damn.
Like I said, songs like those two were exactly what I was expecting from PowerNerd from what he’s been saying for the past few months. What I wasn’t expecting is just how much in touch with his old school Devy this album would get. Tons of little moments reminded me of his pre-Devin Townsend Project days, but two tracks in particular – “Falling Apart” and “Younger Lover” – just sound ripped straight out of his older catalogue. The former has one of those massive ‘standing on top of Mount Olympus’ choruses he’s well known for, with the finesse and intensity you’d expect from a Terria track. And man, “Younger Lover” gave me all the chills. A soft guitar intro and beautiful acoustic verses build up to a cathartic explosion in its massive wall-of-sound chorus. The vocal melodies in moments like ‘I’m free/I’m free/We’re free to go wherever we may roam’ made it feel like a third brother to “Tiny Tears” and “Nobody Here”, and stands tall among them. To a longtime Devin Townsend fan, hearing new songs that touch upon these soundscapes again is straight up nostalgic, like I’m listening to a comeback album from a band I loved years ago and still possesses all the heart they had back then.
You’ll also find a few tracks that are very characteristic of his modern, ultra-positive Empath and Lightwork era, starting with the single “Gratitude”. It’s funny how it feels like making songs this positive about life is something that only Devin can pull off without emanating toxic positivity or sounding cringe. He recognizes life’s hardships and all the shitty things we all have to deal with, but still manages to have a positive outlook on life and be overall grateful for it, warts and all. It’s something I’ve always admired him for, and he manages to transmog that into his music effortlessly. While “Gratitude” is a nice song, I would consider it to be the weaker link on the album, though. “Ubelia”, while following in pretty much the same mellow, power ballad energy, is way more interesting to me – it’s filled to the brim with energy and it manages to create a powerful catharsis that makes for one of the most beautiful moments in the whole album. It honestly reminded me a little bit of “Life”, and there’s enough heart on it to tug a bit on your heartstrings.
“Jainism” is another song that possesses all the makings of a classic Devin Townsend song. Heavy, massive riff? Check. Atmospheric? Check. Grand sounding chorus? Check. The man singing his ass off? You bet. Honestly, this song is like a stripped down version of something you would find on Synchestra. He also pays direct homage to another of his favorite bands here, The Wildhearts: take a listen to their song “Plastic Jebus” and you’ll hear the similarities pretty soon. Despite being in a very lighthearted album, “Jainism” has quite a bit of gravitas to it, making it stand out even more. As he said it himself, this song is about ‘the idea of what it means to rend yourself artistically to an unresponsive world’, so it makes sense to get a bit more serious. This song could become a live concert staple, and honestly, it’s already a modern classic in my book.
For those who appreciate a good callback – something he does every now and again and makes for a pretty fun game of ‘spot the reference!’ – there’s a big one in this album. “Glacier” has some pretty direct connections to “Before We Die” from Sky Blue in its vocal melodies, and could fit into that particular DTP era pretty tightly. Not just because of the callback itself, but a lot of its guitar and synth work took me back to Transcendence. It’s a pretty big sounding track, but it does feel like it’s missing something to properly hit home. That wall of sound, though!
My favorite song in this album is “Goodbye”. It’s like a perfect amalgamation of everything PowerNerd featured so far: it’s definitely on the happy and hopeful side, has some straight up hard rock moments and all the grandiose and introspective elements of old school Devy. It really glues the whole album together, sonically and thematically. I love how Devin just abandons metaphors or poetry for a lot of his lyrics: this song is called “Goodbye”, and it climaxes with ‘Darling, tomorrow/I’ve got to let you go/I love your mind, your smile/I love your soul/Goodbye, I love you’. It doesn’t get any more direct than that, and it’s all the more human and powerful for it. I’ve yet to hear this song without crying at the end. As a cherry on top, it also features the extremely rare occurrence of a Devin Townsend guitar solo. Yep.
There’s always at least one song in each of his albums that feel like they’re exactly I’ve been needing to hear at that particular moment of my life. It was “Stormbending” in Transcendence, “Spirits Will Collide” in Empath, “Call of the Void” in Lightwork, and now it’s “Goodbye” in PowerNerd. It’s a song I already know I’ll be coming back to forever, as I do with all of the ones that touch me deeply. Honestly a career highlight.
After that big explosion of feelings, the album is finally closed by “Ruby Quaker”. It’s by far the weirdest song over here, and it’s probably intentional: it’s like “Goodbye” was the real climax to the album and this is more of a blooper reel, a glorified demo track that’s just there for some fun. If you like Devin’s sense of humor, you’ll have a huge grin on your face. As the album is all about vulnerability, stripping things down, and embracing your quirks, it feels like a perfect way finish things up.
As I was reviewing this album, it crossed my mind that this is the first mainline Devin Townsend album in quite a while which does not feature a bonus disc of demos. And come to think of it, it makes sense – at its core, PowerNerd is a lot like his bonus demo discs. It was meant to be simple, direct and to the point, so instead of spending tons of time crafting and perfecting each song like he usually does, he just went with the flow. That’s probably why there’s so many different ideas scattered around the album, and also why so much of PowerNerd feels so genuine and fun – it was made from the heart.
PowerNerd is a big reminder of why Devin Townsend will always be my favorite artist of all time. I’ve met many amazing bands and artists through the years, and since I first delved into his music a bit over 10 years ago, my life and even my music taste changed drastically. Even if I don’t hear his music as often as I obsessively did years ago, it always speaks to me at a spiritual level and feels like it was handcrafted for me specifically. “Goodbye” feels like a warm hug in my soul, and I can’t help but feel grateful for it, for many of the other special moments of PowerNerd, and honestly, for being able to be this deeply connected to an artist.
If you’re a fan, you’re gonna listen to PowerNerd, because of course you will. Maybe you won’t vibe with it as much as his other work, maybe you’ll think it’s too simple, boring or even uninspired. However, there may just be something in this album that clicks with you. That connects and resonates deeply within you. Even if it doesn’t, you can at least rock out a little bit while you wait for the new Casualties of Cool, for The Moth, and whatever else he has in store for the future.
Devin Townsend is the greatest example, in my eyes, of a true artist: he’s always 100% genuine with what he’s creating. And PowerNerd couldn’t be any more genuine than it is. I know it’s another album I’ll be coming back to forever. Man, I’m glad there are almost 30 of these!
