Devin Townsend has officially announced his long-awaited new record Empath for March 29, which he says he'll be rolling out in a combination of singles and mini-documentary pieces. Townsend has now published the first part, called "Thesis," which is a long phone call with Mike Zimmer detailing how he wants to make the record.
Here's what Inside Out Music and Townsend had to say about the creation of Empath in an ensuing press release.
On this album Devin has decided to see what would happen if all the styles that make up his current interests were finally represented in one place. To finally shake the fear of expectation, and just do what it is he was meant to do creatively, Empath, true to the name, is about allowing the audience a feeling for a variety of musical emotions. The musical dynamics represented on this single album are broad, challenging, and immense. To approach this sort of work with a long history of what makes heavy music ‘heavy’, allows this to be done with a type of power rarely heard.
Joining Devin on this album is Frank Zappa alumni Mike Keneally as music director, as well as Morgan Ågren (Mats And Morgan, Frank Zappa, Fredrik Thordendal), Anup Sastry (Monuments, Periphery), Samus Paulicelli (Decrepit Birth, Abigail Williams), Nathan Navarro, Elliot Desagnes (Beneath The Massacre), Steve Vai, Chad Kroeger (Nickelback), Anneke Van Giersbergen, Ché Aimee Dorval, Ryan Dhale and the Elektra Women’s Choir.
Expect a single soon.
