Light Reading

GW CATCHES UP WITH DEVIN TOWNSEND, WHOSE PREDICTABLY UNPREDICTABLE 21ST SOLO ALBUM, LIGHTWORK, WILL SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY LATER THIS MONTH

- Gregory Adams

DEVIN TOWNSEND OFTEN thrives on extremes. From his early Nineties breakthrough singing on Steve Vai’s Sex & Religion, to the brutalizing industrial death-thrash of Strapping Young Lad, to his coffeecentered prog opera Ziltoid the Omniscient, to the drone-heavy ambient daydream of last year’s Snuggles solo album, the Canadian eccentric isn’t known for staying in a specific lane for long. Townsend is just as predictably unpredictable on his 21st solo album, Lightwork, which may raise eyebrows from the metal faction of his fanbase over its grandiose, hard-swung power ballads (“Lightworker”), industrial biker rock (“Dimensions”) and cactus-scented, electro-acoustic strummers (“Vacation”).

“Sometimes people who aren’t familiar with my work assume I do these things to be provocative,” Townsend suggests of his many musical mood swings, “Like, ‘You know what would really throw a wrench in the works is if we do a dusty acoustic song.’ But it’s not that in the slightest.” The reason for the eclecticism is much simpler: Townsend just wants to try new things.