"Everything has changed" are the last lyrics to 'Truth', the first track on "Transcendence". Anyone who's been following Devin Townsend for a long time knows that the bipolar genius never does anything like everyone else and that there are many changes within his plethoric discography. This sentence could seem anachronistic since 'Truth' already opened the album "Infinity" in 1998. However, listening attentively to this d version of this old track with its choirs singing luminous "Hallelujah", it is easy to perceive if not the change, at least the evolution of the Canadian whose madness seems to finally give way to a relative serenity.
For the first time with his formation of the Devin Townsend Project, of which this is the eighth album, the forty-year-old has decided to let go of the ballast, slowing down a bit his bulimia for work and his obsession of total control and leaving a part of creation to the members of the band while remaining faithful, as the artwork shows, to his favourite themes combining science-fiction and decadent mysticism.
And the result is breathtaking. "Transcendence" is a powerful, epic, limpid, inspired and emotion-filled metal symphony, rid of the over-emphasis and exaggerated grandiloquence that weighed down the previous album "Z²". Of course Devin Townsend's musical universe is still very present with his lyrical choruses ('Transcendence') and his superimpositions of musical lines ('Stormbending' and his grandiose finale) supported by an exceptional production. But it is impossible not to admire all the creative and melodic genius that runs through 'Failure' and its heady melody, 'Secret Sciences' and its riff that Steve Vai will no doubt listen to with jealousy, 'Offer Your Light', melodic summit composed of a single chorus sung ad libitum by a Townsend in trance or the very progressive 'From The Heart' at the same time pop, metal and atmospheric.
Another notable change on this magnificent album is the place given to the guitar soli which, having been on the back burner for some time, reappear with style and personality ('Failure', 'Secret Sciences'). Finally, a Devin Townsend album couldn't do without the wonderful voice of Anneke Van Giersbergen and her appearances, cleverly more sporadic than usual, each time precious and transcendental ('Failure', 'From The Heart').
So even if the last track 'Transdermal Celebration', a cover of the band Ween, doesn't bring much to the whole, "Transcendence", a jubilant and haunting album, ranks among the best productions of the year.