I'm not gonna deny that this is one of his bests albums. And probably the best album of 2005 so far. And yeah - I think the production is his best yet.

I don't like the mix of Alien a lot (CD version). Actually the leaked version is probably ripped from the same master the actual CD is from. My personal favorite tones are from City and Terria, but I voted for Terria, because it's a little warmer.

I like the guitars to be in-your-face, not in the background same for drums.

alien would sound beter if the snare was turned up a little, it is so low you can hardly hear it!

I reckon Alien is one of there great albums, wouldn't say the greatest...but never the less a great one. For me it took me no time too get straight into this album, i heard tracks previous to the release date on the radio and loved every second of each song...well apart from Info Dump, it's an ok song but not one to put on a SYL release.

My favourite songs would be Imperial, We Ride, Love and Shitstorm. This is a great album, but im sure like everyone else i believe that it doesn't come close to City.

Hmm. I think City is a better album, but I still thik that every album devin does, his production gets a little sharper and cleaner. I love Terria's production plenty, but that album is always going to be a more lush afair. This is SYL! Heh... But anyhow, I fucked up this poll when I made it so we may as well ignore it.... ick.

Nope, I won't ignore it, whether the poll is fucked up or not

What stops me from voting is that it's so hard to compare. Of course, I think no one will disagree when I call the production of Alien "huge". BUT I can't say that I actually prefer it to the production of, well let's say Terria. It's a matter of taste really, and to me it's especially important that the production does justice to the songs and underlines the songwriting and the atmosphere meant to be created by the melodies, riffs, vocals etc.

Hope I can make myself clear... For example, right now I'm listening to "Science Fiction" from Blackmail (I LOVE this fuckin' album!). You can never ever compare it to Devy's productions. It's much more down to earth, it even sounds a bit dirty at times... But I feel like this is the one and only way this could have been done. It just fits right for the music.

That being said, I think that every Dev album has a good production. SYL's self-titled album's production was VERY different from City, ie. But so were the songs, and (except from the snare sound, which got kinda lost in the mix at times) from that point of view, Dev did a really good job there too.

Hope there'll be some more votes in this poll, quite interesting!

I would dare to say Alien here. Just a very clean sounding, yet chaotic record. Much like City, but Alien beats it for me.

It doesn't take a proper version for me to tell this. Just listen to the clarity of the drums, the kickin subs, the crisp vocals.... Maybe i just have better ears than you, who know.......................

I guess your ears can hear what isn't there. MP3 does not contain all of the frequencies that full CDDA files do. Sorry.

I really wish you could hear the guitars better on Alien. The way it's produced, it's almost like the guitars are part of the overall impact of things but sometimes (Skeksis) they just aren't loud enough.

That said, it's still the best produced Dev album for me. The drums kick major ass, and all the other levels are damn near perfect.

The production on each of Devin's album isn't a separately existing entity...but another characteristic of the overall product. A lot of times, i feel that Devin's music is compared with production being the key component of evaluation...(for non fans!!). I love Alien for what it is sonically...and think that the production is phenomenal!

The production on Alien is amazing and it scares me! Plain and simple!
One thing I am surprised about is that no one's mentioned Accelerated Evolution yet. The drums on it are so perfectly compressed/eq'd and generally fiddled about with and he's made them sound like such a beautiful instrument...I could babble on forever about them! But I'll spare you all that.

the drums were a little loud on alien, and the guitars needed to be louder ^_^

alien sounds fantastic, i was and am still blown away by the sound quality of this product and or service. my only gripe is that it is slightly quiter than city and syl, so when i listen to them all on shuffle on my i-piddly-pod, the alien tracks seem a little nervous next to all hail and so on

but lol, what am i saying? alien for album of the year. someone send me a pin to wear, the campaign trail starts here

Currently listening to devlab, now this is wonderfully clear production, and just so rich and clear, at a recent party, track 7+8 were blasted and to my suprise and delight got most people grooving (on a side-thought I've also invested in ableton 5 and am loving it) Oh and you can't deny aliens production, on certain headphones bass booms destroy the sound entirely! On good systems the way its meant to be, you've GOT to have it as loud and clear as possible, well, I have to, and wow it changed me completely as a musician, how I hear music, how I feel music. I havent heard production like skeksis before... I thought it was only in my dreams, it is time for music and sound itself, with technology now, to go further and further forward, the only way.