The Shiva and Shakti of Devin Townsend and St. Vincent
Right: David Lee from Redmond, WA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Spoiler: They are both Shiva and they are both Shakti.
Devin Townsend is perhaps the most famous musical talent that no one has ever heard of. His music spans almost all genres of popular music (hip-hop being a notable exception). He would be my desert island musician as the full range of his discography covers all the bases for me. His work spans extreme metal to ambient, with a country blues album thrown in for good measure. He once described his work as a cross between Enya and Metallica.
His earliest work was as the front man for the extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad (SYL). The SYL albums contain a furious power and anger, but within them one sees hints of the future Devin to be. As it turned out, as he was fronting SYL he was also working on his first solo material, which would later be released as his debut progressive metal masterpiece Ocean Machine: Biomech. Over the next 25 years he released album after album, exploring everything from deep pain and despair to sci-fi fantasy to crazed and upbeat “spiritual metal” to some beautiful ambient pieces as well. His vocal range spans death metal growls to an ethereal almost soprano, with a bit of over-the-top high school musical thrown in on the side.
His latest album Lightwork is a less metal and more sensitive exploration into the post-COVID…
