I had this vision of what my sound should be (I'm an aspiring musician) and then I heard Devin Townsend's music I was completely blown away and kinda devastated at the same time. I was more blown away actually. It doesn't bother much though cause Devin is doing the type of music I have in my head but it's 100x better than I'd ever imagined it could be.

I'm a one year fan here and just feel like paying my respects.

If Devin Townsend's not a musical genius, then I don't know what is.

*Anxiously awaits Synchestra*

I can easily understand your feelings!!

When I saw ZH + DTB + SYL Live in 2003 I wanted to give up drumming.

That happens to me all the time. I'm always in awe of other players and everytime I hear someone just rip a solo out of their ass, or write an awesome riff, I wanna give up. It always makes me think "Shit, I'm never going to be that good".

I think it was the layering thing, with all the delays and reverb going on on Ocean Machine that amazed me the most because I'd been playing around with sounds like that before the album even came out.

When I heard it I was like "shit... this guy's incredible and I suck!"

I know what you mean, but Devin has a real inspirational effect on me that you can just make the music you want to and have it work...if that makes sense.

Here's a negative Dev thing for you. Last week at work, I had to sign about 250 christmas cards. So after writing my name loads of times (Christine) it starts to look really weird and I kept wanting to, (and did) write Christeen on them..... grrrrrrr. Now I look like a fool who can't spell her own name!

I still remember the first time I heard Physicist a few years ago after being a fan of SYL, and I really loved it. Next up was Accelerated Evolution right after it came out, and that just blew me away. In the same mail order I also got Infinity and listened to it after AE, and it was just as good, if not even better than what had just blown me away. Next Devin main CDs that came to me were Ocean Machine and Terria, and Terria is still my favorite, it didn't stop getting better for me. Devin really changed my views on how music can sound, how it can be written, and what you can really do with it. I listened to some pretty interesting stuff before Devin's solo stuff, but he really did something I hadn't really heard before, and I can't get enough of it.

I think it's partly down to the fact that he's happy to use really a huge heavy metal guitar production in a prog context.

There are other prog metal bands, but their "heavy" sound is often very clinical (Dream Theater - personally love them but a good example).

What I think this results in is that he has all the layering, synths, quiet moments and off-beat strangeness that bands such as Spocks Beard possess, but he does it with a contemporary metal slap in the face (I mean post-pantera-style, not nu-metal-style ha!!)

That, and the fact that he seems to have an express connection between his mind, soul and finger-tips.

I'm always jealous to my friends.
It pisses me off if they're better than me at something like playing guitar.
But if some genius like Devin Townsend is better than me, I don't give a shit. I just enjoy listening to his music and wish to become something like him.
Being a worse musician than a famous rock star is self-explanatory.

Actually I almost stopped listening to Steve Vai's music when I heard Devy for the first time and got into it.
Steve Vai started to feel like a "mere" guitar hero but not a great composer mastermind like Devin.

Actually I almost stopped listening to Steve Vai's music when I heard Devy for the first time and got into it.
Steve Vai started to feel like a "mere" guitar hero but not a great composer mastermind like Devin.

That's very true dude, I do love a lot of Vai's stuff, but he can't pen "real" songs anywhere near as well as Dev.

What's fucked up to me is that I have been destined for years to be "into" Devs music.
I have a few CD's that were my favorites that I listed to a lot waaaay before I knew who Devin was....and turns out, he produced them!

One of them is Unit 187's "Loaded" CD with Jed and Byron in the band, and Dev producing it....like SYL lite in a way.

I also have Hard Wired and Millenium by Front Line Assembly that is supposed to have Devy on guitar or something.

Another more recent is Lamb Of God "As The Palaces Burn" that Dev produced...and I have the Terror In Hubris DVD with a brief scene with Dev in the studio.

As far as what "rgx612a" said....I feel the EXACT same way!!!
I've had this sound in my head for a LONG time....then I head DTB and it's like "umm...well, nevermind, someone already did it!".

I'm the same way but if you think about it Dev listened to bands when he was us back then and said"shit those guys are genius's" so we just have to take the insperation he puts in us and with out ripping him off make something as equal genius(impossible but....) at least try.No one will ever be able to compaire to him ever like 300 years from now and C.D's,Cassetts and vinyl are a fairytale from the past its just too bad for them so we are all very,very lucky.

just make the music you want to make, dont worry how any other band sounds, when youve established a song, tamper with it and try to make it original and a sound that is diferent but suits you

I always think the Devin/Vai comparison is really interesting.

There are some very obvious differences in their approach, and I admit it is tempting to kind of see them as opposites from a composition perspective. And yet in many ways, it strikes me that they do have a similar mindset to their music. There is no particular agenda other than making the music they want to make and that they really put immense effort into it...well I get that feeling anyway, kind of hard to put into words though