Devin Townsend - Powernerd
Devin Townsend returns with his 28th studio album, PowerNerd, a celebration of his unique and anarchic brand of upbeat prog metal, expertly fused with stadium anthem goodness.
PowerNerd may perhaps be one of the shortest albums in his lengthy discography. Coming in at just over the 44-minute mark, this restraint works to its advantage. There is not an inch of fat on this album and any brief ambient interludes feel natural.
From the powerful, tongue-in-cheek, energetic punk rock roots of the opening title track, and nods to 80’s hair metal in Knuckledragger there is a lot here to keep the pace up and maintain interest. In between these thrashier tracks, the first half of PowerNerd feels complimented with the slower more introspective anthems like the catchy resonance of Falling Apart and the arpeggiated ethereal Gratitude.
The album takes a short breather with the exospheric Dreams of Light an introductory twin track to my personal favourite song Ubelia. This has been on repeat since I first heard it. The low-end chorus is a goosebump inducing, reverb laden masterpiece in song writing craft. Elsewhere, the hard-hitting, proggy riff-filled Jainism feels extremely well-placed at this point to propel forward into the brilliantly poignant Younger Lover. This flows effortlessly into the wall-shattering operatic chugginess of Glacier and upbeat rock and roll of Goodbye. This song feels comfortably in the same ballpark as more straightforward tracks from previous records like Stagnant from Terria (2001) and Slow Me Down from Accelerated Evolution (2003).
PowerNerd concludes with an absolute belter in the bouncy country-bop earworm Ruby Quaker. This cheerful ode to having a morning coffee abruptly morphs halfway through into an extreme metal earfuck caffeine high. This song just exudes good-natured fun, ending the album with a bang.
Since his 2019 career keystone chef-d’oeuvre Empath, it’s almost impossible to believe Devin’s song-writing has become even more polished. Every chorus on PowerNerd is so well written.
His vocal delivery and song arrangements are constructed absolutely flawlessly. It is a testament to the quality of the song writing that any individual song from this album could comfortably be played as part of his live arrangements for years to come and could stand on their own