Devin Townsend

I ordered the two-disc. I think I'll hold out until the second disc is available for download as well. I probably won't make it until the physical release of the thing before laying ears on it though.

I was surprised to hear they're already mixing the DTP album. They're tracking guitars and such on Z2; I had no idea they'd even started DTP, let alone nearly finished it.

I'm kind of hoping the Casualties CDs start shipping out around the same time the Z2/DTP CDs end up in stores. That would be a joyous day, indeed!

Finally have a chance to listen to the Casualties album - just over half way through it and am really enjoying it. Great night music, like a relaxed and more ethereal version of Ki.

Curious what the second disc is though. I remember someone mentioning it might be the long-awaited Ghost II collection, but no idea how true that is.

I really enjoy this one. It's not what I expected. Yeah, the Ki stuff is there, as is that trademark Devin Townsend ambiance, but there's a lot of swamp boogie in the mix and stuff that sounds like a soundtrack to driving through the desert at night, alone on the highway kind of stuff, you know. And it has this "out of time" kind of sound, like it was recorded from or for a long-gone era.

That's probably way too wordy. F*ck it. I dig it quite a bit. =)

No, I totally get what you mean - it's a lot more classic folk and swamp based than I expected as well, except with some trademark Devin weirdness to it. For a Devin album, it's also incredibly stripped back instrumentally, which is actually quite a nice change. But yeah, definitely a great night-time album.

Smindas wrote:

Finally have a chance to listen to the Casualties album - just over half way through it and am really enjoying it. Great night music, like a relaxed and more ethereal version of Ki.

Curious what the second disc is though. I remember someone mentioning it might be the long-awaited Ghost II collection, but no idea how true that is.

Anyone get an e-mail about the entire thing being released, disc two as well? I saw a download of it on a NewAlbumReleases.net, then had to go check Devin's Facebook page. Lame.

Anyway, here's the tracklist for disc 2:

01 – Ghost Wives
02 – Drained
03 – Dig For Gold
04 – Dead Eyes
05 – Drench
06 – Mend
07 – Where You’ve Been
08 – Gone Is Gone
09 – Fight
10 – Glass World
11 – Aquarius
12 – Perspective
13 – Moonshine

Looks like it's at least partially Ghost 2. "Fall" and "Watch You" are missing, as well as the previously mentioned "Coming Home" and "Saloon"; but "Drench" and "Mend" are there and "Perspective" and "Moonshine" were mentioned as Ghost 2 tracks. So who knows if it's Ghost 2 or not.

Yep, got an email from Pledge about it last night - I've downloaded it, but I'm still digesting the first album so I'm going to ignore it for a little bit.

Saw a tweet from Dev, apparently it's not Ghost 2 after all - "fwiw, disk 2 is just a bonus disk...not a real 'album'... in a similar way to 'Epiclouder'". It's a shame that Ghost 2 never got a proper release then, as I wanted to hear more stuff like 'Watch You' - probably one of Dev's best songs, as far as I'm concerned.

Its on Spotify

Started to go through the main album. Downloaded the bonus, but haven't even touched it yet.

Very interesting vibe. A bluesy Ki.

Where has the info on Ghost 2 been coming from? I didn't know that Dev had released any info on that whatsoever with all of the Z2 talk flying about...

Really enjoying Casualties. Great album to listen to at night when you can just kick your feet up and relax.

Runicen wrote:

Started to go through the main album.  Downloaded the bonus, but haven't even touched it yet.

Very interesting vibe.  A bluesy Ki.  

Where has the info on Ghost 2 been coming from?  I didn't know that Dev had released any info on that whatsoever with all of the Z2 talk flying about...

It was announced way back when Ghost came out. Originally it was supposed to be a Ghost/Ghost 2 double album, but then Devin decided to release it separately as an EP, I think, then later a full-length. But then I guess he eventually decided the material wasn't strong enough. Silly, of course, because the songs slated for it that have been released are great. The tracklisting was to be:

01. Radial Highway
02. Drench
03. Mend
04. Fall
05. Watch You
06. Moonshine
07. Perspective
08. Coming Home
09. Saloon

"Drench" and "Watch You" were given away when you preordered Ghost or maybe one of the other four from that time. I forget. "Mend" and "Fall" were released digitally elsewhere. Can't remember where. "Radial Highway" showed up as an iTunes bonus track to Ghost (and it's a brilliant song, by the way). Not sure what happened to the rest of the songs. Maybe some parts ended up on Casualties, as he suggested a good while back.

Travis Smith even created artwork for the album:

Looks like 'Moonshine' and 'Perspective' made it to the bonus disc of Casualties. An acoustic version of 'Saloon' was released on the Unplugged EP he did a little while back, but looks like 'Coming Home' completely disappeared.

As an aside, that Unplugged EP was an absolute gem. I'd love to hear another set of his songs done in that style. I saw him do an acoustic show a few years back, and the very of 'Hyperdrive' he did was incredible (which he reprised at The Retinal Circus, so at least there's some version of it).

Smindas wrote:

Looks like 'Moonshine' and 'Perspective' made it to the bonus disc of Casualties. An acoustic version of 'Saloon' was released on the Unplugged EP he did a little while back, but looks like 'Coming Home' completely disappeared.

As an aside, that Unplugged EP was an absolute gem. I'd love to hear another set of his songs done in that style. I saw him do an acoustic show a few years back, and the very of 'Hyperdrive' he did was incredible (which he reprised at The Retinal Circus, so at least there's some version of it).

Honestly, I'm not sure if I ever listened to that Unplugged album. I have it, but it looks like I never ripped it. The CD is somewhere in storage now, so who knows when I'll see it again. Guess I'll have to download it. =(

You owe it to yourself to give it a spin, even if it means downloading it. It's incredibly chilled out.

I'm assuming this is a new DTP song. Doesn't really sound like something that'll be on the Ziltoid album. Sounds awesome, though.

Isn't the new Ziltoid half DTP, half Ziltoid anyway? It's all very confusing. Sounds cool any way. That man has some pipes.

Smindas wrote:

Isn't the new Ziltoid half DTP, half Ziltoid anyway? It's all very confusing. Sounds cool any way. That man has some pipes.

Yeah it's going to be a Ziltoid versus DTP, or something like that. Ziltoid on one disc, and DTP on the other.

So Devin posted a new picture of him and Steve Vai the other day. Then today, Dug and Devin posted pics of them together at a studio, said they were going to lunch. However, the mention of a studio has me kind of excited. Might be that Dug and Steve are guests on the upcoming Ziltoid and/or DTP albums. =)

Eyesore wrote:

So Devin posted a new picture of him and Steve Vai the other day. Then today, Dug and Devin posted pics of them together at a studio, said they were going to lunch. However, the mention of a studio has me kind of excited. Might be that Dug and Steve are guests on the upcoming Ziltoid and/or DTP albums. =)

No complaints if so. Dev has this way of using his album guests to the full, and that in itself is a rare skill!

You can hear some rough demos of Z2 tracks here: http://universalchoir.insideoutmusic.com. You can also contribute your own vocals. Pretty cool thing, actually. I'd do it if I still have recording equipment.

Demos or not, it sounds awesome (the "all in" streams on the right sound best). "Dimension Z" sounds like a long lost Terria track.

Guitar tracks for Z2 are sounding about as good as I expected. Really spacey sounding stuff.

Heh.

Hah! Yeah. Saw this on the book of Face. The sad part is, I totally didn't expect it. Dev does like to hide his ideas and parodies in plain sight.

Honestly, I hope he moves on from the Ziltoid thing after this. As great as the first album is, he runs the chance of making it all a bit hokey if he takes it too far. It's a gimmick that has it's limits, I think.

The first album is so good, though.