Not sure what forum this should have gone in, so here it is...

Devin Townsend has been one of the most prolific and unique musicians of the past 20 years and he’s not even been making music that long. His musical visions range from chaotic to serene, melancholic to happy, and everything in between. The man is a musical genius, a talent that knows no bounds. Whether it’s the relentless onslaught of the controlled-chaotic-mindfuck that is Strapping Young Lad or the sweeping, sonic and majestic beauty of Terria, there is no denying that Devin Townsend is one-of-a-kind.

His musical tentacles extend far beyond metal, too. With his Ass-Sordid Demos I and II compilations we saw that he could stretch his musical being into realms not often explored on his main albums and still come up with some amazing music. But it’s an album like Punky Brüster’s Cooked On Phonics, for example, that really showcases the extent of his talent. The album is a tale of a Polish death metal band by the name of Cryptic Coroner that sells out and goes punk because they weren’t making any money (see Pyogenesis for a real life comparison, doom-death to pop punk). In 1995 Devin called up the record company and said, “Give me $1,500 and I’ll give you a new record in a week.” They gave him the money and he sat down and in a week wrote and recorded one of the best punk records you’ll ever hear. A week! Seven days! And it’s funny, too. Who does this? Who can do this? Granted, punk isn’t the hardest style of music to write—which obviously helped—but it’s the whole package: Great riffs (far more metal than basic punk chords, though), killer vocals, an hilarious story, and great songs. And it took just one week. The man isn’t even capable of writing a bad punk song.

To read the entire review CLICK HERE.

Not sure what forum this should have gone in, so here it is...

Devin Townsend has been one of the most prolific and unique musicians of the past 20 years and he’s not even been making music that long. His musical visions range from chaotic to serene, melancholic to happy, and everything in between. The man is a musical genius, a talent that knows no bounds. Whether it’s the relentless onslaught of the controlled-chaotic-mindfuck that is Strapping Young Lad or the sweeping, sonic and majestic beauty of Terria, there is no denying that Devin Townsend is one-of-a-kind.

His musical tentacles extend far beyond metal, too. With his Ass-Sordid Demos I and II compilations we saw that he could stretch his musical being into realms not often explored on his main albums and still come up with some amazing music. But it’s an album like Punky Brüster’s Cooked On Phonics, for example, that really showcases the extent of his talent. The album is a tale of a Polish death metal band by the name of Cryptic Coroner that sells out and goes punk because they weren’t making any money (see Pyogenesis for a real life comparison, doom-death to pop punk). In 1995 Devin called up the record company and said, “Give me $1,500 and I’ll give you a new record in a week.” They gave him the money and he sat down and in a week wrote and recorded one of the best punk records you’ll ever hear. A week! Seven days! And it’s funny, too. Who does this? Who can do this? Granted, punk isn’t the hardest style of music to write—which obviously helped—but it’s the whole package: Great riffs (far more metal than basic punk chords, though), killer vocals, an hilarious story, and great songs. And it took just one week. The man isn’t even capable of writing a bad punk song.

To read the entire review CLICK HERE.

Good read. Funny how half of a Devlab-review can cover Punky Bruster.

The first and last sentence of that quote made me laugh

Hehe...well, I actually wrote a review for this when I was writing for Tartarean Desire back in 2004, but it got to the point where I didn't like reviewing there anymore. I didn't like how the owner would edit my reviews, combine paragraphs and shit. Eventually I just stopped writing good reviews, this was one of them. They were short, didn't say a whole lot, etc. I just didn't want to spend all that time writing a review just to have someone else change it.

So, I figured I'd give this one an update as it deserves it. I had to add all the Punky Bruster stuff because no one knows about the album! One or two lines wasn't enough. Haha. Plus, it made a point...I think.

One thing I would caution you on is heaping too much praise onto an artist in a review. If you come across as too much of a fanboy, people may take the review with a few grains of salt, if you know what I mean...

One thing I would caution you on is heaping too much praise onto an artist in a review. If you come across as too much of a fanboy, people may take the review with a few grains of salt, if you know what I mean...

There's no such thing as too much praise when done constructively.

(Yeah, I know, this is old.)

We've recently made a new forum, so I'll punt this over yonder.

One thing I would caution you on is heaping too much praise onto an artist in a review. If you come across as too much of a fanboy, people may take the review with a few grains of salt, if you know what I mean...

There's no such thing as too much praise when done constructively.

(Yeah, I know, this is old.)

He was telling you that it wasn't done constructively as much as it was "fanboyly" - I think. I agree with him. I also agree with your review, being that I'm a Dev fanboy and all.....

One thing I would caution you on is heaping too much praise onto an artist in a review. If you come across as too much of a fanboy, people may take the review with a few grains of salt, if you know what I mean...

There's no such thing as too much praise when done constructively.

(Yeah, I know, this is old.)

He was telling you that it wasn't done constructively as much as it was "fanboyly" - I think. I agree with him. I also agree with your review, being that I'm a Dev fanboy and all.....

That surely wasn't a fanboy review. Saying it was more "fanboy" than being constructive is ridiculous.

One thing I would caution you on is heaping too much praise onto an artist in a review. If you come across as too much of a fanboy, people may take the review with a few grains of salt, if you know what I mean...

There's no such thing as too much praise when done constructively.

(Yeah, I know, this is old.)

He was telling you that it wasn't done constructively as much as it was "fanboyly" - I think. I agree with him. I also agree with your review, being that I'm a Dev fanboy and all.....

That surely wasn't a fanboy review. Saying it was more "fanboy" than being constructive is ridiculous.

Well, that's certainly a relief. To we uninformed folks it may seem like when two readers offer the same constructive criticism/opinion of a review that they may have a point and that the reviewer may want to utilize their advice to improve his writing. Fortunately, you are here to inform us all that those who offer you their opinion, and thus help, are just "ridiculous" in their interpretations. And who could be more objective in analyzing your own writing than you yourself?

Hahaha. A sarcastic turd. Nice.

It's funny, not a single other person has ever implied that this was a "fanboy" review outside of this forum. Maybe its their perception—knowing I'm a big fan—that is wrong ? Noooo! It couldn't be that, could it? I don't need to improve my writing because two people called this a "fanboy review."

[Blazingmonga]

From reading that review again it does give the impression that you are a huge fan. The first section is valid in that it informs the reader about Devin's creativity and how Devlab fits into the other things we know Devin for. However, it is phrased from the perspective of a fan, not a casual listener.

This is kind of obvious really, given that you are a fan and not a casual listener. However, I do agree with what danceswithchickens and HauntingTheHoly have touched upon, to an extent at least. Perhaps it is far more interesting to read from the perspective of somebody who has no previous impression of the artist? Maybe what Devin has done previously shouldn't be involved in the judgement of his latest efforts because it suggests a potential bias, even if that bias isn't present. The quality of albums already released has no bearing on the quality of those that follow.

I think that the reason that there has been questions raised here and nowhere else is because we all already know what Devin is capable of. What we want to know is what you really think of Devlab, what you get out of it and how it makes you feel.

Maybe you would do Devin greater credit by isolating this release from his other ones, judge it on its own merits. So, perhaps to say that you like Devlab because Devlab is cool, not because Devin is cool and it is cool that he made Devlab.

To summarise - it does not surprise me that you find constructive criticism here and nowhere else. It is more surprising that this shocks you and makes you use the word 'turd'. Also your review is excellent, to be fair. Well written and very positive. It would be very difficult to approach this review in any other way. Who else is even going to know or want to know about this release without agreeing with the first, informative, section?

PS: That was the most procrastination I have done in a long time. Thank you! Please feel warm inside, like hot chocolate on a cold day. I should really do some work now. Any spelling or grammar mistakes are not my faults.

Well, the "turd" comment wasn't meant to be insulting. I laughed at his sarcasm—or what I took as sarcasm—and threw a little back. =) It's all good.

Here's the thing about this review: Originally the review was a forum-only review (those that have been around here for a while will remember the mini-reviews I did here back in the day). The Devlab review was originally one of those reviews. Basically the last two paragraphs. In fact, I actually put it up at Tartarean Desire when I reviewed it (http://www.tartarean...).

I didn't like reviewing for that site; and because of the way everything I uploaded was edited by the owner I eventually quit. I did so because my reviews began to suck—because I didn't care. I then moved to MetalReviews.com and began redoing some older reviews; the Devlab review was one of them.

The thing about Devlab is that you really can't say a whole lot about it; at least I don't think you can. Short reviews, however, are not what is done at MR.com; we do longer, more in-depth reviews there. And considering Devlab is not even close to "metal" I couldn't upload a short, non-metal review, and break two rules at once.

So I changed a bit of the original review, and then added the whole top part. It was meant to be informative; a little background info on the man who seemingly has no musical bounds. I think, if anything, the top three paragraphs can be taken as the expounding of a big fan; but I think it transitions into a very pointed review that doesn't show any of the "fannerisms" that the top few paragraphs may have—and, really, if anything in that review remotely has any "fanboy" smatterings it's the second paragraph only; and I feel that is stretching it.