Metal Nurse Sojourn: Part 3, Sofia and getting lost in the woods

Lost In The Woods

If you so desire you can read Part One and Part Two, respectively or separately or not at all. The choice is entirely yours, though I would recommend that you do so.

The next day I got up early, got packed up, paid the hostel and set off to find that mysterious bus station again. In order to head back to Sofia. My other half had said that getting a bus was both quicker and cheaper, and of course provided better sightseeing opportunities than a train. Seeing as she had done a helluva lot more travelling than me, I took her word for it. She was correct. Getting the ticket was a bit of a trick, seeing as the lingua franca is Russian, but I did manage to obtain one. Then there was a bit of a misunderstanding regarding the seats, as I hadn't clocked on that that the seat numbers were on the tickets. Somehow I had expected it to be similar to the British system where people just plonk their butts anywhere. I got a mournful look from a Bulgarian grandmother and an international sign language explanation from another. The bus was full, and it was hot. And it only got hotter by the minute because the bus driver didn't want to open any windows or turn on the AC. It became very hard to keep my eyes open.

Hostel Mostel in Sofia

When I got into Sofia I did my usual Google Maps cock-up. Attempting to find my hostel. Hostel Mostel for those who want to know. It wasn't easy to find. Google Maps did take me to the approximate location. I really should have spent a bit more time in learning the Cyrillic alphabet. So I hung around a little bit then noticed other backpackers going through a security door. When you get through those doors you are greeted by endless cats, some pigeons and a really rather nice looking building that turns out to be the hostel itself. Which I neglected to take a photo of myself (the photo to the right is from their website), but I just really really needed to get my backpack off, have a kip and fuel up on some coffee. Once inside you are instantly hit with the relaxed atmosphere of the place and FREE COFFEE!!! I had to insist on paying up front because I was on a budget and wanted to make sure I had plenty to last me the rest of the trip. After fuelling plenty on coffee I got shown my room, which was in a different building but on the same street, and I instantly fall asleep. For 45 minutes.

After my kip, I go back to the common room of the hostel, get shown a map of where to go, where to eat and what there is to see. Then also with some aid from Google, off I trot.

Monument To
The Soviet Army

Sofia... Feels like a big city. Take it however you want, but to me, that is not always a compliment. Not exactly an insult either, I just feel a bit more on edge, not quite as safe. But it does have its fair share of beautiful buildings.  Outside the Cathedral Saint Alexander Nevski, I dine of because it is still really rather warm. You get to see most of the touristy stuff in about an hours walk. Which I did, so with the trusty Atlas Obscura I try to find something more obscure. I decided that I wanted to see 'Monument To The Soviet Army', which apparently gets vandalised in the most inventive ways on a regular basis. When I get to the park where it is meant to be located, I just see lots of teenagers. Lots and lots of teenagers on bikes and skateboards. Accompanied by loud, no-sensical music. Strutting their stuff, doing dangerously stupid tricks with minimal safety equipment. And an audience. Apparently, I had just walked into Sofia's annual Extremefest. Beer, burgers... And... And... BUNGEE JUMPING! Oh, heavenly sweet Buddha of the Latter Day. I needed to do that. Now! But sadly I was hampered by my budget. So instead I sat there, like some old fart watching other people fall to their almost deaths. One person chickened out. *Sniff*.

Oh and the monument, sadly scrubbed clean. Still nice and well done and fascinating to walk around and look at. Just not pop-culture referencing nice. So time to walk some more. Oooo, a squirrel... A BLACK SQUIRREL. That looks like a red one! Maybe we should import those into the UK. Oh, but it is the same species as the red one. Never mind then. Damn it was cute though.

The weather is still very nice so I just take my time to walk around the parks of Sofia. It is a nice city, good to spend a couple of days at. But to be honest, Plovdiv was nicer. Sofia is also slightly more expensive but that isn't really saying an awful lot. The one detail I did notice about Bulgaria is that there is not a lot of microbreweries. Which saddened me a little, there are some nice cheap lagers to be had. There was a lot of choice in vodkas and wines, but I prefer my ales. The city is alive, smells clean, and is not crowded with too many tourists. I know there are tourists around because the hostel is teeming with them. But it's not overrun with them like Prague. After much walking, I return back to my hostel to do some more writing and eat.

Sofia Day One

National Museum of History

The next day started off with another free meal a la Hostel Mostel. If there is one thing I'd take away from travelling to Bulgaria it is to book your stays at Hostel Mostel. It is cheap, secure and friendly. The biggest plus though is that you get two free meals, breakfast and dinner. Which when you are travelling on a tight budget is excellent, plus the food is tasty, but more importantly in vast quantities. Over a nice cup of coffee, I go through Atlas Obscura recommendations and prowl through Google Maps. Finally, I decide to walk to Boyana Church. An Orthodox church dating from the 10th Century. Because... Why not. It's a nice walk. Shouldn't take too long. On my way I stop at the National Museum of History, I start to suspect that Google Maps is trying to get me killed because the route it wants me to walk through goes through a secure facility, surrounded with cameras and notices about hungry dogs and armed guards. The museum building itself is captivating with its surrounding scenery.

I don't think I w
ant to press my luck too much. But I did manage to get into the museum. Which was captivating, the history of Bulgaria is an intriguing hotchpotch of different cultures amalgamating together. The Greeks have been here, The Romans, The Thracians, Bulgarians, the Ottomans and many more. Invaded by Hungarians, Mongolians, Serbs, and many more still. Then of course as can be seen above they have had a lot of input from the Soviets. Then there is the history of the Cyrillic alphabet itself, which remains the only alphabet where we can trace it back to its original creator, Clement of Ohrid. After taking another moment to stop and have some coffee, I take in the view. Specifically, the mountain that Sofia is based right next to. I want to take a photo up there. So again after consulting with Google Maps (Even though it probably did try and get me killed before), I vacate the museum after spending a good two hours walking around. On my way out the guard eyes me up suspiciously with a cigarette in his mouth, doughnut at hand and a big gut. Probably feeling like he should be doing his job, he asked me to hand my bag over so he could search it. Thankfully I only had bottles of water and some apples. Which I had purchased on the way. Which happens to be water from the Devin province, which considering my ultimate purpose of the trip just seemed to make sense. He seemed very disappointed by that.

I still hadn't made my way to Boyana Church so I start walking and sweating slightly. On my way there I come across a guy walking his pet cow. Boyana Church as mentioned previously was originally built in the 10th century, with various add-ons attached since then. It is on the Unesco Heritage List, it's a beautiful little church located again in a beautiful piece of the country. But again because of budget constraints I couldn't afford to enter but had a good mooch around the building itself. I do now wish I had paid to go in because the frescos in there are so unique and breath taking. After getting my breath back I then decide to walk up to "Жива вода Бояна" which according to Google Translate means "Living Water Boyana". Whilst there I promptly get a little lost in the woods. But I took my time in being lost, the surrounding nature and the woods were just too good to not to do so in.

The Snail House

If I had taken some more time I would have been able to locate the waterfall that starts the living water but instead I wanted to walk to a monastery as I had never been to one, at least not one which had monks in. This walk was filled with wondrous nature, empty houses, animals and birds that I don't get the opportunity to see elsewhere. Then I walked and I walked. And walked some more. After a while, it becomes clear to me that Google Maps doesn't know where it is taking me or what it is doing. After I while I give up on that and decided that I wanted to find the ski lift that takes people up to the top of Vitosha Mountain. Again Google Maps fails me a little and I give up on that. At this point I was getting a little tired of walking around. So up comes Atlas Obscura and points into the direction of The Snail House. Which I did get to see, but couldn't as it is only outside which is a tourist attraction, the inside is residential. Thus my day was almost to an end. I started walking back to my hostel because I didn't want to miss dinner. I was hungry. Like really, really hungry. The walk was long but mostly straight. On the way back I decided to stop at one of many, many pizza takeaways that were there. Selling pizza slices for less than a pound, by the pound by the looks of things. If you ever get to go to Bulgaria I do recommend those pizzas, they are worth every morsel, especially when you are starving. Again along the way I pass through various parks and see many historical buildings. After I reach my hostel I had done 40,000+ steps. My knees were aching and I was ready to enjoy this cheap lager that I had bought and vast quantities of Hostel Mostel food.

Church of Saint John Rila/ Lada / Abandoned Bus Shelter

The Woods at the foot of Vitosha

I sit down. Read a little bit and write a bit more. Get to bed and fall asleep. The next day I packed everything up and headed back home. Happy.

Metal Nurse Sojourn: Part 2, Hearts and all

Alyosha Monument

You can read the first part here.

So now that the main reason for my journey has been and gone. Time to explore this beautiful country. It's still very warm, at least for my cold cold Icelandic blood. I started the next day with some light breakfast and a lot of coffee, and one plan only. To see the mahoosive statue that is overlooking Plovdiv, The Alyosha monument.  For no particular reason except it looks huge, and interesting and the walk looks like it will be worth it. The Alyosha monument is there to honour a single giant Soviet soldier who single-handedly saved Bulgaria from the Ottomanazi's. Until the day he was cursed by a Ottomanwitch that he would turn to stone on top of his minions as soon as he struck a menacing pose when looking towards Moscow for inspiration. So I just walked around,  the statue was fascinating, massive and quite stunning to look at. The park it was situated in the middle of was quite the trek and jungle to get through, with its many dead ends, overgrown paths and defunct fountains. But it also had a summer theatre in the style of the Roman Amphitheatre.

River Maritsa

In my wisdom I decided to walk from the statue to the Leisure and Culture Park, hoping obviously for plenty of culture and leisure. Found scant evidence of either, except for a graffitied monument and lots and lots of greenery. But it was a really nice day, so I just kept on walking. And walking. Then walked some more. Then I doubled back and started walking towards the river Maritsa. But not before I came across a canal, that was right next to the river. Which only measure something like 1.5km long and 0.5 km wide, and covered with presumably husbands trying to stay away from their houses, fishing. Finally did get to the river itself, which had its own charm and make my way back into Plovdiv, during this time I witnessed a working Lada. Oh, how I want one. Can't even explain why. They aren't good looking, they don't drive very well, they're uncomfortable to ride it. Takes ages to start when it gets a bit cold, which is amusing in its own right considering where they are manufactured. But they're functional, easy in terms of upkeep and takes a nuclear bomb to destroy them.

The Indestructible Lada

Across the river

 It cannot be overstated. But Plovdiv is a beautiful city. It feels open and homely. It just generally feels nice and on the whole a lovely place to live in. It feels historical. The buildings are gorgeous to look at, even the dilapidated ones... Actually, especially the dilapidated ones. The mixture of all the empires and civilisations that took hold of the city can be felt. Even if each successive ones tried to scrub the previous ones out of history. The predominant colour scheme tends to veer towards the matty, light coloured clay style. Most of the roads are cobbled. In Plovdiv, they also go for what is my favourite type of roofing with the reddish clay plated ones.

Just because, I decided to join one of those free guided tours. I'd walked mostly everywhere anyway,

Greek tragedy in Roman theatre.

but since I  couldn't understand the language or the alphabet, I thought it would be prudent to actually find out about the city from someone local. The guides name was Ilya, a budding law student. Who was also very enthusiastic about his city, and his enthusiasm was very infectious. For me it didn't really need to be. But here was a man who really loved his home city. During this time we find out that the aqueduct that the Romans built was demolished to build a church, and everything Roman was either destroyed or covered up with lots and lots of soil. And when the Ottomans came, they didn't destroy anything they just made the church into a mosque. Because it was cheaper to do that than build a bigger mosque. The city was first founded 7000 BC making it the longest-lived in settlement in Europe. In the meantime, it's been ruled by Thracians, Macedonians, the Greeks, The Romans, Bulgarians, Slavs and Ottomans. In fact, Plovdiv is a Bulgarian version of the name Philippopolis, named after Philip II of Macedon. If you go into H&M you can go into the basement where you can see the original seating of the gigantic Roman Colosseum.

Chicken Hearts done Village Style

After the tour me and two other travellers, an Israeli ex-soldier and Dutch marine biology (forever) student go to a local restaurant called Rahat Tepe, located at the foot of Nebet Tepe ruins. All I knew was that I wanted to try something Bulgarian, something local. So... I and the Dutch former Master student ordered Chicken Hearts done "Village Style" and patatnik, and Israeli former soldier ordered Chicken Livers done "Village Style" and some sort of creamy salad with one single olive on top. The Chicken Hearts looked like an extremely simple meal. Loads of chicken hearts (at least 25 of them), slow cooked with some stock and lots of onions. It was delicious. The Patatnik was an interesting potato dish, never had anything like it. Never had a light potato dish for that matter. But that is what it was. Extremely light potato dish. Sort of felt and tasted like a cross between mash, souffle and omelette. Definitely a hint of mint and what also tasted like nutmeg, all baked in a clay dish. We all returned back to the hostel full and happy. Had a couple of beers with a Swede who lives in Norway, who kept on reminding me how old I am compared to him. Two exceptionally nice beers, 2 levs each.

The next day, I packed up. Wrote a little bit more and got ready to head off to Sofia. And hope that I will be back in Plovdiv with my beloved.

Statue in the Aloyshoa Park

The Monument in Leisure and Culture Park

Graffitti, Abandoned building.

Metal Nurse Sojourn, Devin Townsend Project and first day in Plovdiv

So my journey begins, as usual, in a slight panic with a sprinkle of anxiety in my hometown of Lancaster.

At Preston Station

The surrounding area of Lancaster always makes me happy because it reminds me a little of my hometown, and thus also how happy I am that I don’t live there anymore. Not trying to take a giant shit on my hometown, I’m just glad that I don’t live there. But the first feeling is overshadowed and strong-armed when Preston comes into the horizon and I wish I was back in Iceland.  It has to be said that England is beautiful. I’ve spent 14 years living here and that opinion hasn’t changed. Just like any other local inhabitant the British are so muted to their surroundings. Except when it comes to the Lake District and Yorkshire folk, those people make the average 17-year-old elder look like an agnostic.

Currently, I am making my way to Bulgaria. Might sound random, but I am going to see Devin Townsend play in a Roman Amphitheatre in Plovdiv. Not only that he is playing the entire Ocean Machine, as well as a “By Request” set list with an orchestra. Goddamn, the price was right. Fucking Devin Fucking Townsend. Playing the entire Ocean Machine.  In Bulgaria. In a Roman Amphitheatre. Makes me wonder how much it would have cost if he had found a similar setting in the UK. Come to think of it, the Fountains Abbey and Kirkstall Abbey would have both provided excellent venues.

And I am going on my own. The last time I travelled to foreign lands on my own was in 2001, to the monolith… I mean the UK. Which incidentally was also the first time I had left the Icelandic shores since I was 5 years old.  I did try and find someone to travel with. But the only people I considered couldn’t due to one reason or another. But nevermind. I am going to see Devin Townsend. With an Orchestra!

Maybe it’s because it is not the usual flying time. But Birmingham International Airport is nice. The security wasn’t stressful, there weren’t a lot of people milling around. It almost feels peaceful. Or maybe it’s because I am not accompanied by three teenagers and a 7-year-old.

The flight itself was relatively painless. I manage to sleep through pretty much all of it. There’s not a lot to see when everything is black outside anyway. The terminal I landed in Sofia is tiny. And I mean tiny, it feels almost like the airport in my hometown with its one flight strip. Whilst I am trying to get my bearings, a man approached me saying that he’s a taxi driver. Something about him just screamed predator, he looked like a man who’d be willing to sell children into servitude and his grandma to a Soylent Green factory. Took a long time to get rid of him, but when I did he just transferred his creepiness to other unsuspecting, tired travellers. So, yeah. I got my bearings, thanks to Google Maps. Thank god the EU has banned roaming charges. Find out that Terminal 2 is about 30-minute walk away and there’s a Metro Station there. So I start following G-Maps instructions…. And they want to take me through a restricted area, with armed patrol… Shit. Never mind, I do like a tourist and walk around it looking a little lost yet interested. Finally got to Terminal 2 which is huge! Massive! And very glossy. And there’s the Metro Station! Now I’m here, and now I need to not panic again. I need to find a way to get from the Metro station to the Central Station, I know I need to change somewhere. And I don’t understand the language or the alphabet, which by the way is very pretty. But makes no sense to my foreign, Latin alphabet leaning, eyes. So instead what I do is look out for other travellers, with luggage and I just decide to follow. Like a knock-off badly written police procedural. I finally get to the station and at 0655 I managed to get a ticket for the 0700 bus to Plovdiv. Get on, fully intending on looking around. But promptly fall asleep.

Hikers Hostel

Then I woke up as we arrived into Plovdiv, what looks like a particularly rough area of Plovdiv. Not unlike some British estates, except with nicer roofs. But it gets lovelier and lovelier. We get to the Bus Station, gods I am so tired. So very very tired. And it felt cold. So cold. Maybe it was just me shivering more due to tiredness. So I buy myself an espresso and some kind of long pastry with what I hope is cheese in the middle, whatever it was. It was nice, filling and most of all warm, and it wakes me up enough to get my bearings. Thank goodness for Google Maps. I pop in where I need to go, and after a few wrong directions, I am finally on my way. The way to the hostel is nice, I walk through Tsar Simeon Park, past the Odeon of Philippopolis and up the market street. Past what I assumed at first was a statue of a monkey man, but I come to find out later was a tribute to a local legend. Towards one end of the Roman Stadium and Dzhumaya Mosque. I finally find my hostel, The Hikers Hostel, which is smack right in the middle of Old Town, 5 minutes away from the Roman Theatre! It’s a friendly hostel, definitely marketed towards younger backpackers. The staff are extremely friendly, there is cheap and nice beer for sale, coffee on the go. I check in, go to my room which includes 3 bunk beds and two single beds. 8 lockers but only 4 of which have lockers. As previously mentioned, the staff are friendly, to the point where I get the feeling that some are chemically assisted to be so. In the background, there’s Dave Brubeck playing. I kick off my shoes. Put down my backpack. I crawl into my bed after making it and promptly fall asleep. After a short, while I get woken up by another guest snoring, sounding like a motorbike with a broken muffler, and the nurse brain in my kicks in wondering worrying that they suffer from sleep apnea and whether they had brought their CPAP with them. Only for another part of my brain kicks back in and reminds me that I am not at work.

Nebet Tepe ruins

When I finally wake up I grab some coffee, okay lots of coffee, look at the map and make my way out. I do the touristy bits and walk around the ruins that are 2 minutes away. Mostly looking out for other metalheads. There’s a lot of them. Long hairs, scraggly beards, black t-shirts with metal logos. Everywhere. And there’s me in my short sleeved shirt, purplish-maroon hooded cardigan and a shoulder bag.

Wall art in Plovdiv

It cannot be overstated. But Plovdiv is a beautiful city. There are ruins everywhere, that also just happen to be littered with rubbish, but the amount of litter cute stray kittens compensates for that. I keep on walking around, wander into Regional Historical Museum. As a museum, it is fascinating, as a building it is awe-inspiring. I’d happily buy it. The one guy working there seems more interested in sitting in the garden and read his book, get the overwhelming feeling that I am getting in the way. But I want to see, so I pay and I walk around, let him get back to his book. After that I wander towards the Street of Art & Crafts, don’t see a lot of Art & Crafts. But I get into a nice cafe, that also specializes pottery and home baking. Sit down for a nice slice of Orange & Lemon cake and boiled coffee. Enjoy it in the garden, have a piece of serenity.

Coffee, cake and relaxation.

After a couple of hours wandering, I return to my hostel, now with Miles Davis in the background, and got to know some of my roommates. All of whom are here to see Devin Townsend. 3 guys flew from the UK. One medical student flew from Helsinki via Istanbul! And then there’s Dave who came from Chicago. Devin does seem to have extraordinarily dedicated fans. But it’s not only the people in the room, its everyone in the hostel whose going to see Devin! Three of us, me, not-Finnish medical student and Chicago Dave decide to walk together to the Roman Amphitheatre.

I bought a bottle of beer while waiting to get in, but before I get to finish it I have to leave it with security :'(.

Devin Townsend Project

But anywho. I entered the arena. 5 and half hours later I leave utterly dumbfounded. Devin, his band, the orchestra and the choir blew my, and everybody else, mind away. I knew it was going to be good, but this good? Wow. There was no need for an encore. Devin did plenty. They started off with playing ‘By Request’ set list that included the orchestra. The setlist couldn’t have been more perfect. Yeah, there were a few songs I’d have like to have listened to live like “Solar Winds” and “Suicide”, but honestly all of the songs were perfect. And perfectly performed. I wasn’t sure if Devin would be able to perform all of his vocal styles in a live setting. But I was wrong. So very wrong, it was better. Much much better. Not only that Devin and the band seem so happy to be there. Devin being the humble guy that he is, thanking everyone. He does do a little talking in between songs, but nothing that distracts from the whole spectacle. To the gathering of nerds. Almost 5000 socially awkward people watching another socially awkward musician who loves to write serious songs and crack fart jokes between songs. From the explosive and hopefully "Truth" to the closing notes of the majestic and serene "Deep Peace", the band don't let up for a single minute. After the break, the orchestra disappears, and all that is left is Devin Townsend and his project. Onto the stage, he gets the original bassist from Ocean Machine, and it was heartwarming to witness. The live rendition of Ocean Machine also turned out to be better than the studio album, it was played to perfection. Including Devin’s finishing shriek. A couple of people start shouting for an encore, but after three hours of music, the majority feel that Devin Townsend and his band have given plenty. In terms of vocal abilities, he is up there with Freddie Mercury.

Best. Concert. Ever.

Got back to the hostel, and fell very happily to sleep.

Top 15 played Artists from 2013-2014

Well it's been just over a year since I first published a similar list. This is done using my Last.FM profile. The list has changed quite a bit, but that is probably because I have started using Last.FM more in order to keep track on what I have been listening to. Well enjoy.

1. The Dear Hunter
2. SepticFlesh
3. Joe Hisaishi
4. Samael
5. Rammstein
6. HAM
7. Antonio Vivaldi
8. Queensryche
9. Marillion
10. Bruce Dickinson
11. Long Distance Calling
12. Iron Maiden
13. Fjoergyn
14. David Bowie
15. Devin Townsend

Bipolarism from Devin Townsend

Mister Devin Townsend is quite possibly the most inspirational, heart-warming, ludicrous, positive musician in the industry today. Don't believe me, just watch and listen to this video:

"Laugh. Love. Live. Learn."

Those are truly great words to live by, and Devin Townsend and his merry men(and woman) deliver them with great conviction and gusto. Devin, for those who do not know(How dare you?) has been around for years now. First coming onto the scene singing for Steve Vai's Sex & Religion, he also proved to be the gracing point of that album. Euggh. But hey, it was a starting point. Everyone needs a starting point... except maybe some teenage stars and Black Eyed Peas(vomit). After his collaboration with Steve Vai, he went onto founding Strapping Young Lad. A project to release all his catharsis, all his frustration on the music industry, all the anger towards life in general... oh and a solitary love song. But during his time with Strapping Young Lad, he started writing music that was more mellow, progressive and forward thinking. He did start out as more introverted, with Infinity, Ocean Machine and Accelerated Evolution.

Devin has one of the most versatile vocal chords in the music industry, as can be heard during his time as Strapping Young Lad, or as Agony in Ayreon's The Human Equation, channelling Elvis and when doing cheesy(Danish blue style) ballads. He's one of the very very few that sing with a falsetto and actually make it sound good. He is also a very very good guitar player, he's not fancy like his friend Steve Vai, but he can certainly make his guitar gently weep. And shriek. He doesn't to solo's very often, and when he does them they tend to be overwrought and over the top, but knowingly so. But he does use lots of pedal effects and arpeggios, and he seems to be able to keep things simple, whilst also making them sound complex.

The first time I ever came across Devin was when my brother recommended Ziltiod The Omniscient, which was Devin's first true solo album. I.e. meaning he did everything thing on that album, including programming the drums using EZdrummer program with Meshuggah's  sampled drumkit. While broadly speaking it's a comedy album, the music on there is pure gold. Best listened to when in a coffee shop, while drinking a tall latte.

His sense of musical humour also came out in Punky Bruster, another concept album about a punk band that decides to play death metal instead and finding finally success.

My personal favourite album by Devin Townsend is Biomech: Ocean Machine. It's an epic, sweeping, progressive album of Devin-sized proportions. My favourite song keeps on shifting, currently my favourite song is Funeral, though his best song that he's ever written is also on there.

But his best album is undoubtedly Accelerated Evolution, here he goes all 70's prog anthem rock on us. One of his many talents is that he manages to write songs that sounds like you've always known them and enjoyed them. He uses his nearly patented wall to wall music production, but without overloading your musical senses and everything is just HUGE on here.

The man oozes positivity. It's not like he hasn't had problems of his own. He has been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, which could explain his spurts of creativity along with the varying degrees of emotions he goes through. During his time as Strapping Young Lad, he decided to come of his medication in order to create a more extreme album, and it was an extreme album. But mainly on a technical level rather then on an angry level. In terms of output and level of genius, I would say that it wouldn't be unfair to compare him to Frank Zappa. I'm pretty sure that if Devin wanted to write a piece of classical music he'd do a fantastic one, probably on par with Jon Lord.

He has been taking a lot of beating for stopping Strapping Young Lad, and not reviving the project. But so far he's been adamant that it's not going to happen, the closest people got to it was when he covered 'Love?', which according to him is never going to happen again. And quite frankly I can understand him. Why try and revive a period of your life that you can't really connect with any more, the thing about SYL was that it was about raging against the machine(Ha!) when young, and at the time he might be have been genuine about that. But people grow up, change their points of view on life and just get on with it. Something that a lot of fans can't do. Which is kind of sad really.

Devin has also dabbled in making ambient albums(I hesitate using the word music here), having released two of those. Devlab and The Hummer.

After Ziltoid, Devin announced that he was finished with putting out music and wanted to concentrate on being a father and had more interest in being a music producer. Which is an area where he's also extremely talented. Having produced albums for Lamb of God, Himsa, GWAR, Soilwork and Stuck Mojo. Along with doing remix work for bands like Rammstein.

But since 2008 Devin has been busy with The Devin Townsend Project. A project that started out with only meaning to publish 4 albums, all hitting 4 different musical themes. Ki, being the mellow yet heavy hitting album, Addicted being the Abba/Ace of Base infused metal, Deconstruction a re-visitation of SYL and finally Ghost being the ambient album. Apparently that original plan was to just do those and leave it. Thankfully he has continued with it, touring pretty much consistently and constantly. Me being the unlucky person that I am have managed to miss 2 gigs of his when he's toured the UK. It seems like he's fallen a bit in love with the Ace of Base style of things, and to be fair I can understand why because Epicloud is an amazing album. With both Addicted and Epicloud, Devin has managed to make albums that are uplifting and positive. They are both great albums to listen to when you feel down, want to exercise or just want to remind yourself how good life actually is.

I know the way, and you know the way

We all fall down if we fear love

Top 15 Songs according to Last.Fm.

Here's a rundown of what songs I've listened to the most according to Last.Fm.