The atmosphere and wall of sound is what we want.
And there's no point in having an album called Epicloud if you have neither.

Unless he changes the title.

I'm talking about the "atmospheric" bits in Ki just used to fill up CD time. Also, Deconstruction was overproduced, for a Devin Townsend album. That's just my (most likely wrong) opinion.

if you're referring to bits at the end of songs that seem to drag on, then i don't necessarily agree in regards to Ki but i do feel that way w/ terria (beginning of olive, the end of mountain & the fluke). haven't heard decon yet and who knows how much of epicloud is even written so how can we begin to speculate which will be better?

Not that I'm a musician or a producer or anything, but I bet those parts are the most fun to make. Artists like Dev make atmospheric stuff like that quite often, mostly covered by lots of layers of vocals, bass, guitars, drums, and so on, so you can't really hear much of it... I can see why he would devote some time on his albums to the atmospheric stuff only, and even entire albums. And honestly, I love it. :3

Seems overly self indulgent and self centered to me. I get artistic integrity, but then there's a little thing (which appears in some genres more often than not) called musical masturbation. That's what I got out of those "atmospheric" bits in Ki.

The atmosphere and wall of sound is what we want.
And there's no point in having an album called Epicloud if you have neither.

Unless he changes the title.

I'm talking about the "atmospheric" bits in Ki just used to fill up CD time. Also, Deconstruction was overproduced, for a Devin Townsend album. That's just my (most likely wrong) opinion.

if you're referring to bits at the end of songs that seem to drag on, then i don't necessarily agree in regards to Ki but i do feel that way w/ terria (beginning of olive, the end of mountain & the fluke). haven't heard decon yet and who knows how much of epicloud is even written so how can we begin to speculate which will be better?

Not that I'm a musician or a producer or anything, but I bet those parts are the most fun to make. Artists like Dev make atmospheric stuff like that quite often, mostly covered by lots of layers of vocals, bass, guitars, drums, and so on, so you can't really hear much of it... I can see why he would devote some time on his albums to the atmospheric stuff only, and even entire albums. And honestly, I love it. :3

Seems overly self indulgent and self centered to me. I get artistic integrity, but then there's a little thing (which appears in some genres more often than not) called musical masturbation. That's what I got out of those "atmospheric" bits in Ki.

Music is exhibitionism. In it's purest form, it's you doing what you want and releasing it so that those who might dig it dig it. If you don't dig it, it doesn't make it unnecessary. Music itself is unnecessary. Are itself is unnecessary. Music should be "selfish". If you force yourself to not do what you want, you're just tailoring it to other people and creating a product.

A product isn't art. It's pandering. Ear pleasing pandering.

The atmosphere and wall of sound is what we want.
And there's no point in having an album called Epicloud if you have neither.

Unless he changes the title.

I'm talking about the "atmospheric" bits in Ki just used to fill up CD time. Also, Deconstruction was overproduced, for a Devin Townsend album. That's just my (most likely wrong) opinion.

if you're referring to bits at the end of songs that seem to drag on, then i don't necessarily agree in regards to Ki but i do feel that way w/ terria (beginning of olive, the end of mountain & the fluke). haven't heard decon yet and who knows how much of epicloud is even written so how can we begin to speculate which will be better?

Not that I'm a musician or a producer or anything, but I bet those parts are the most fun to make. Artists like Dev make atmospheric stuff like that quite often, mostly covered by lots of layers of vocals, bass, guitars, drums, and so on, so you can't really hear much of it... I can see why he would devote some time on his albums to the atmospheric stuff only, and even entire albums. And honestly, I love it. :3

Seems overly self indulgent and self centered to me. I get artistic integrity, but then there's a little thing (which appears in some genres more often than not) called musical masturbation. That's what I got out of those "atmospheric" bits in Ki.

How does stripping down your music become musical masturbation?

Who says masturbation is a bad thing?

I love the atmospheric, ambient stuff. I'd go as far as saying those are my favorite parts on Ki. You know, songs like Terminal, then pretty much the whole album after Heaven's End Why? Hard to say, it just seems to click with me on a deeper level than many styles of the music that I listen to.

Who says masturbation is a bad thing?

No! No, you can't say that with that avatar! D: (all though good point)

I love the atmospheric, ambient stuff. I'd go as far as saying those are my favorite parts on Ki. You know, songs like Terminal, then pretty much the whole album after Heaven's End Why? Hard to say, it just seems to click with me on a deeper level than many styles of the music that I listen to.

YES! Also, that stuff tends to last longer with me. It seems to have more to offer in the long run, despite being less complicated.

Epicloud is the next record. Big, heavy, romantic kind of melodic stuff. Pretty, ethereal and simple.

From Dev's Twitter account and he also answered to a guy's question about what this "Epicloud" might be:

a new direction. 10 songs written, 6 good.

This man is a maniac...

I think what Dev may be ever so politely and subtly trying to say is for us to stop speculating that Epicloud will sound like this record or that record... because in his opinion it is something totally new. To me, ALL of his albums have been totally new, but this may be totally new in as dramatic of a way as Ki or Ghost or Ziltoid (none of which sound anything at all like the DTB albums, or each other). It's only natural for us to want something to anchor our imaginations to, and all we have to go by is past material (I was thinking a cross between Addicted and parts of Synchestra myself, for example), but it sounds like this may be something spectacularly original.

I've already set aside funds for the preorder.

Heavy guitars + clean vocals, that is a combination that I really enjoy generally speaking... and the appearance of Anneke is a no-brainer, I hope she gets utilized heavily on this album. I'm *REALLY* looking forward to this!

I just heard about this album now...

He is truly a workaholic. For how long can he continue in this manic way? My first impression of the description of the record is very good.

Devin always says that music comes quite naturally to him. Deconstruction/Ghost were written and "in his system" for years now, so it seems not sooo manic to me that now after completing it, new material is "coming to him". I don't know anything, but as far as i can tell this part doesn't seem to be "work", the workaholic seemed to be more present while recording, touring etc.

What i'm asking myself: "Big, heavy, romantic kind of melodic stuff. Pretty, ethereal and simple" sounds a lot like "Deep Peace", "Greetings" or something like that (hurray!?). I wonder what the "new direction" is...

[Octillus]

Let's not forget that the DTP has been in the works/writing for 4 years. That Stand riff has existed in a form seemingly since the dawn of time.

Everything we've heard about this album so far sounds too good to be true.
It's a bit suspicious really...

[swervedriver]

Well, I for one am really glad that we're moving forward from all this DTP tripe.

/sarcasm

I'm curious how the songs will end up sounding being written from the ground up on bass.

If Dev ever tours with Epicloud, he should play bass live, that would be interesting.

My vision of the epicloud live band is:

Dev: vocals and bass
RVP: drums
Beav: guitar
Dave Young: keyboards

...and...

...lead guitar...

...

...Steve Vai.


Yes. That would be cool.

Vai is waaaay too distinctive. Everything he plays on ends up sounding like a Steve Vai song. The outro on "Triumph" from 'Synchestra' totally ruins the song for me, because it stopped being a Devin song and became a Vai song.

I think it is interesting that Dev said he was learning to play Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes on the bass. Skynyrd has some great bass grooves.