Even if I still think it's the mainstream fans who are out of touch.When the singer and producer Aurora Aksnes was growing up in a small town in western Norway she didnвЂ™t know much about the world. All said, it's my sincere hope that even though Devin will continue to drive his standard progressive machines for his primary fanbase, he'll continue to put out these exotic masterpieces for the rest of us weirdos. And for me, it's incredibly gratifying to see Devin Townshend grabbing hold of his ability to create unique musical permutations in the face of a fanbase that has already been. It's so impressively coordinated that it has to. well, puzzle! It's so crazy that it just might work. It's a big name in a specific arena grabbing hold of his artistic inspirations and a massive crew of talented artists, and throwing it all together in a tightly orchestrated. The mix of these ingredients and the peaks and valleys of their incorporation (including spoken word about podcasts, distorted guitars, electronic distortion, violins, flutes, and super sexy sax) makes it hard to slap an easy label on the experience.ДЄnd, to me, at least, that's what makes The Puzzle a really, really fun album. Though, on the whole, it's somewhere between experimental post-rock and Sufjan-brand orchestral pop. Really - there are reprises of 'Sumeria' and truly heavy bits to be found here and there throughout the experience. The vibe I keep getting is Casualties of Cool meets The Age of Adz with a little Deconstruction thrown in for good measure. Not that it's not a weird big picture, but it's a cool one. But for all of the star power and even the name branding, The Puzzle feels aptly named, with each piece playing its part and fitting in to the service of the big picture. Worried about the same old soldiers and instrumentation? The Puzzle has an astounding crew of incredible musicians ranging from the familiar (Che Aimee Dorval, Anneke van Giersbergen, Jed Simon) to big names (Steve Vai, Jordan Rudess, Plini, Anup Sastry) to the less familiar heroes in the bandstands. Exploratory interludes like 'Anxiety in Pyjamas' are too dotted with flashes of electronic glitching and stabs of dark, reverberated bass for me to simply call its whispy woodwind melody or ivory ticklings simply 'ambient' - although the influence is certainly there. Though there are moments of reflection, tracks like 'Me and the Moon' and 'Hammerhead Sugarplum' have undeniable pop appeal. There are no spacy, meditative, drawn-out passages.

I've seen the record described as 'ambient,' but can't find that sentiment in my own listens. Worried of Devin employing the same sound as his prog standards? Out the window! The Puzzle taps into realms Devin has touched throughout his career, but feels as experimental as it does cohesive. But for those unaffected by recency bias and with the mind to explore Devin Townsend's creative depths, The Puzzle is just another prime product of the mad scientist canuck's laboratory experiments. Some years since that record and with the more adherent-to-the-beaten-path Empath the closest object in the rearview mirror, I guess I can see where The Puzzle would be unexpected.

Casualties had already proved that Devin was ready to get weird again to spectacular results, and I (perhaps selfishly) wanted more of that. In fact, it was 2016's Transcendence that really got me bummed out on Dev - following on the heels of the original four albums inspiring the Devin Townsend Project, it felt like Devin was in a rut producing the same album with the same band trying to recapture the pop metal sound of Addicted over and over. Setting aside the likes of Devlab, Synchestra, and The Hummer before them the man has a catalog that proudly proclaims 'Look at me! I work the way the music moves me!' Review Summary: Devin Townsend's The Age of Adz carefully places each piece where it needs to fitДЄny public outrage that Devin Townsend has dared to release an album defying whatever Progressive Metal label has been foisted upon him is out of touch.

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