Deconstruction

Deconstruction is an epic on which Devin Townsend packs in, at once, an almost excessive heaviness, bizarrely complex development, and humor with unease. Over ferocious guitar and explosive drums, the songs change shape again and again in unexpected directions, continuing to overwhelm the listener. It sits at the most chaotic extreme of the project’s tetralogy. From the grand introduction of “Praise the Lowered” and the frenzy of “Juular” to the aggression of “Planet of the Apes” and the dizzying development of the epic “The Mighty Masturbator,” every song carries an immense amount of information, and a flood of sound that even mobilizes orchestra and choir surges forth, while a cut like “Poltergeist” spurs the excess further. Even within the vast information, a sure sense of construction that designs the chaos itself as one piece of music works throughout. Rather than mere noise, it has the force of a huge, precisely assembled edifice. It is an overwhelmingly distinctive record for listeners who want to fully savor extreme metal and boundless experiment.