Classical Composer Reacts to Kingdom (The Devin Townsend Project) | The Daily Doug (Episode 71)
Reaction #KingdomReaction #TheDevinTownsendProjectReaction #ReactionVideo In this episode of #TheDailyDoug, I’m …
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March 26, 2025
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You have to inform yourself before making a reaction, Devin Townsend is a very eclectic musician, he became famous singing on Steve Vai's album "Sex & Religion" and then began his personal career with his metal band Strapping Young Lad. For more than 30 years he has been exploring different musical genres and has a privileged voice. Those transitions from operatic and melodic voices to typical metal growls are absolutely devastating and require outstanding talent. It is very ignorant of you to underestimate that point. You need to know a lot of music.
I was blessed to actually be at this show
Not to harp on this 3 years later, but I think it's very important, not just aesthetically, but musicologically. You do not take away melody or tone nuance… it is LITERALLY a tone, and melody is based on the fact that there is tension and release, and rhythm reacting to melody has ALWAYS been part of how melody is made effective. We all know from a musicological point of view that music is more than the nuts and bolts of theory. If it's all been done before, and it has, then these NUANCES are something new to add that can bring the final piece of what I would add to my first sentence. Emotion. The reason he's screaming is that the song is not about a wedding… the wedding is depicting what was, and why he's struggling. The struggle… is a scream.
Love the music theory!! ❤💯🇨🇦
Thanks for actually watching the live version instead of emg TV.
Wow, Doug… thx! Great analysis. This was my first listening to Devin Townsend as well, about 1.5 years ago now. Eversince, I've been discovering more and more of his enormous musical repertoire. I went to seen him performing in Amsterdam in May this year. And to both my wife and me he has become one of our favourite musicians. We're now so looking forward to his next concert in March… So thank you, Doug. Thank you for introducing Devin and analysing his great talents, the Doug way…
Hi love your channel. check out mr bungle. would love to hear your comments
Doug, as you like Devin that much… could you make an impression on his former band Strapping Young Lad… Wrong Side would be a good song to look at.
Your appraisals are like your talking to Music pupils some of us don't want to know all the ins and out just what you think of it not a technical breakdown to the Max ..we want to hear the Song in its entirety first…
Tbh, i also always thought the song would be so much nicer without the growls. I always get super excited with the first few vocal lines and then suddenly get reminded why this song isn't quite in my top 10 of all time (which it easily could have been)
Ok boss, are a big band trumpet player the same for fast or slow songs? Or a jazz? Ska? Which one is right?
How would you arrange it, using classical instruments.
The band, Ministry, did a recent re-work of the song “Every Day is Halloween”, prob dig it, especially after how bad it was in the 80’s Metallica’s “S&M” album is re-arranged with a symphony. There’s some really good Tool covers out there… never seen any review.
Man, listen to the complete song before you start going all music theory on us!
Pausing it to speak is not listening.
Do Deadhead live @ Royal Albert Hall Pls
From the same concert, you should check out "ih-ah". Beautiful and features more of Anneke
Nice reaction. You should react to these performances
Devin Townsend Project – Hyperdrive https://youtu.be/WlcVhJNhF_k
Devin Townsend Project – Awake https://youtu.be/NEVOEWRGdCM
Devin Townsend Project – Pixillate https://youtu.be/KeAmR53mO6M
Devin Townsend Project – Kingdom https://youtu.be/ZcAlE8ciNTU
Devin Townsend Project – Supercrush https://youtu.be/FZLgXOz1om4
Devin Townsend Project – Numbered! https://youtu.be/1anXoA2-TII
Devin Townsend Project – Grace https://youtu.be/E1Gwtep2oXw
It's funny listening to you opinion of Devons vocals in this song, compared to your opinion after hearing a couple of songs.
Pure genius…
The first part, that transitions to the scream at the end is pure majesty. Just listen to the lyrics he's singing. It starts off with clean and beautiful vocals, and then as he begins to sing "I've come undone" he mirrors that feeling in his transition to the screaming vocals. It's truly a work of art.
Doug, the studio version of this spectacular song has less screaming
Most of that "heavenly wind-chime" is just Devin's guitar, it's unreal the amount of reverb he saturates his tone with, combined with the open tuning makes his guitar a total soundscape 😌
I love how you gave anneke van giersbergen (the female vocalist) some creds. Shes amazing as well!
is this dan harmon's new job?
Just found this, and am laughing at you. @Doug Helvering …Your face as you're reading on cue the progression changes, HA!! From one musician who loved to study the theory, you picking up on Anneke's down stepping to E.. I am smiling.. finally someone who can follow friends!! Devy's got new stuff coming out this week FYI. One of the best in the biz.
Review the emg TV version you'd have a totally different reaction.
Devon live is an amazing experience 😎
Honestly, screams can allow you to reach higher notes, or at least allow you to reach the same dynamic as other notes. Once you go too high your voice gets too weak, but screams can allow you to belt out those notes… The unique thing about Devin Townsend is that his screams have a distinguishable pitch, thereby not destroying the melody, but adding a layer over it. I always compare it to playing a melody in octaves on a piano (e.g. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1). The notes in octaves blend so well together that they become a sound of their own, a more powerful version of the original melody if you might. That's what a scream does to a melody, if done right. I'm not a fan of screaming for the sake of screaming, but knowing where screams are actually tasteful and actually add to the overall sound is a learning process, especially for someone with a classical background. Speaking from experience 🙂
He sounds NOTHING like a baritone…
Devin's Townsend's musically most interesting stuff is probably on the albums "Ocean Machine: Biomech " (or just Ocean Machine) and "Terria". Oh and "Synchestra". This song is from a small album that's mostly regarded as bit of a dip in quality, certainly in production qualities, although it is not unpopular, with this song in particularly clearly being very popular. But the aforementioned albums are mostly disregarded by hypers. If one wants to listen to a full album, as you said in the end, those are priority choices, more than most with single hyped songs.
As single song picks from Ocean Machine I would suggest:
-The Death of Music
-Funeral
From Terria:
-Deep Peace
-Tiny Tears
-Stagnant
-Nobody's Here
From Synchestra:
Triumph
Gaia (<- I would say one can make out the phenomenon of synesthesia there, one almost sees a picture, of roots, cloud and forest or something like that)
In terms of pure complexity, the album "Infinity" is also a relatively popular mention, though I find the above albums better experiences as a whole. I think I have mostly ranked the songs in reactability by their respective album. But for that purpose I would mostly go with the first three songs mentioned (The Death of Music, Funeral, Deep Peace).
I'd love to hear you react to Singularity off Devin's most recent album. There's definitely parts of it you won't enjoy but I think it will be interesting for you to see how those parts are setup and serve an integral part in what the piece is trying to communicate. I also think you'll love the voicings and orchestration, they're quite John Williams-esque in places. I consider it one of the greatest musical journeys ever executed and would love to see your reaction to it. Bonus points if you do the whole album
Hi Doug,
I enjoy listening to you talk about some of this stuff.
I think with Devin you will find that the distorted vocal will grow on you.
I actually don't generally like growly vocals, but Devin is the exception, because he manages to keep it melodic…. and he uses it generally in his higher register, so it has this crisp sound to it.
Try Deadhead, or Pixillate…. or if you're feeling game, check out the whole Empath album…. it's quite remarkable
I’m sure you’ve gotten this a ton but you’re just flat out wrong about “scratching their vocal cords”. There’s a right and a wrong way to scream, do it right and you will not damage your voice at all. He has been singing and screaming with that gorgeous voice for 20 years, sounds even better than the day he started, both cleans and growls.
Every time he teams with Anneke, great things happen! She is simply amazing!
C'mon, Doug! Growling is EXPANDING your instrument! And there CAN be pitches to screaming, and there's all KINDS of different techniques… I'm hoping you'll eventually start getting over the fact that growls don't fit notes as they do in your traditional western music formation, but is instead start LISTENING to music as a higher art form! Just like microtones, alternative pitches and tunings, grows are just DIFFERENT! I love your reactions, your great ear, your harmony analyses, but open your mind to extreme genres of music!
I'd be curious if you've ever heard Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke (e.g. Seeing Red) who is trained as a chorister (order of St Andrew) but whose voice can go into a range once described as the "sound of the Earth vomiting" and everything in between.
To be fair… It took me years to enjoy the screaming in any music. So I understand…. Peace of advice… open to it… You lose nothing and gain everything
I love you Heavy Devy!!
Loved hearing the technicalities of the notes and chords. It's been way too long since I've played any music, something I want to change, I fell out of it because of life and I miss it dearly, and Devin has some interesting sounds going on that I no longer can put a note or chord or step by ear, and telling us how all of them tie into eachother, I really really miss learning about that so thank you! (AH a lydian suspension, I remember learning about that in school, really really cool sound)
When the pedal tone is G minor, you know you're in trouble!!