When we asked our contributors to tell us their albums of the year, we also offered them the opportunity to retrospectively review any of their Top 10 list that we hadn’t reviewed already. Ruth Booth took us up on that offer.
The Devin Townsend Project
Ghost
Hevy Devy Records
20 June 2011
by Ruth Booth
With those weightless woodwind notes, we come to the final (planned) part of the four-year, self-titled epic: Ghost, the ambient calm to Deconstruction’s storm of chaotic metal. Though Deconstruction is the more abrasive and complex of the two, Ghost has potential to be the ‘difficult’ record here – and not just if you’re still pining for Strapping Young Lad. Townsend has attempted ambient and folk sounds before, though they’ve largely been complimentary or quirky flavours on more eclectic albums. Meanwhile, his only fully ambient records, The Hummer and Devlab, were self-conscious, rather willful experiments in THC sound, and remain cult choices even amongst devoted Dev fans.