Tonight, one of Glasgow’s most iconic venues the O2 Academy is paid a visit from the Canadian progressive metal heavyweight, and the embodiment of Frank Zappa within heavy metal, Devin Townsend. Having kicked off his tour in Dublin the night before, Devin makes his first live appearance in the UK since his astonishing 2021 performance headlining the Bloodstock Festival.

There is no doubt in this reviewer’s mind that when it comes to Devin Townsend that he will bring that same festival headline energy to the O2 Academy, and indeed, he does! Devin explodes onto the stage with the unmistakable djent-like opening riff of Failure, from the Devin Townsend Project album Transcendence, to the explosive excitement of the crowd as the number continues with its operatic vocals and emotive progressive guitar work.

The audience didn’t have long to catch their breath until they were hit with the superb heavy riffs and drumming of Kingdom, from the classic album Epicloud,  with an incredible vocal performance, stirring chorus, and short progressive instrumentals. Devin’s very special relationship with his audience is always a staple of all his performances. This especially being seen during both By Your Command, in which multiple Ziltoid puppets could be seen sprouting up in the audience as soon they recognised the song, and during Life, which saw the crowd chants of “who we are what we are” echo through the O2 as Devin held up and sang to Gary, the soft toy octopus that a member of the audience had thrown up to him before he started the number.

A highlight of the show was his inclusion of Strapping Young Lad songs which he has only recently started to reintroduce into his sets. The first of which, Aftermath, saw the crowd go absolutely wild with pits opening up and multiple crowd surfers, as the O2 was torn apart with the incredible pace and ferocity of the aggressive guitar tones and crushing drumming. Devin gets to show off his fantastic immense operatic-like vocals again as he performs Deadhead, from the Devin Townsend Band album Accelerated Evolution. The sheer impressiveness of the vocal work in this number cannot be overstated with its emotive pseudo screaming, high-pitched tones and strong emotional pull, to the point the O2 was filled with the echoes of the crowd “it’s all in the heat of the moment!”.

That special connection that Devin has with the audience could not have been more evident than when he performs Ih-Ah, from the album Addicted.  Right from the beginning of the playing of the song’s iconic melody on acoustic guitar the audience erupted in cheers and immediately started to sing along with Devin. Halfway through Devin stops just before the chorus and says “come on I don’t f******g sing”, trying to persuade the audience to sing themselves. The  audience taken a little by surprise sing lightly, to which Devin says “well that was pretty lacklustre” and gets the audience to do a death metal scream, and then gets them to sing the chorus again, and to get out their lighters. By the end of the  song the O2 is filled with lights. Playing Supercrush off the same album he similarly persuades the audience to sing by going just before the chorus “oh shit I’ve forgot the lyrics…words…sing it for me” not that he needed to, as we were all already singing our hearts out while being hit with the chugging riffs and beautiful soundscapes of the number!

His second and final Strapping Young Lad Song – Love? – absolutely stormed through the audience with one of the most iconic extreme metal riffs of the early 2000s. The audience to put it plainly lost their shit! Fan after fan ran into the ever-growing pit, as the room rumbled with the juggernaut chugs of the guitar, and the ferociousness of the drums. After Love? came the first encore number Spirits Will Collide from his recent Empath album, which couldn’t have represented a starker change in atmosphere from the previous number but as it is with Devin it couldn’t have worked more. This track is notable for displaying how emotive Devin’s impressive far-ranging vocals are, which can be well described as a powerful instrument in its own right, and in this song denotes a strong sentiment of hope and the belief that things can get better. Safe to say the audience reflected this by singing their hearts out together hands on each other’s shoulders and in many cases even hugging each other. Devin’s ability to generate this reaction from his audiences through his music really represents the real beauty and humanity of the man and is always a magnificent thing to experience.

In usual Devy fashion, he finished his set with a trademark more whimsical number Vampira from the Synchestra album. This track perfectly displays the fantastic eccentricity and boldness present in his style of experimental progressive metal. An extremely contagious track its zaniness mixed with its heavy riffs fashioning some absolute polka mayhem, the audience couldn’t stay still all dancing and jumping about.

To sum up this review in a few words…. As always Devy it has been an absolute pleasure!

Photography by Lewis Allen

Devin Townsend  online:  Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Youtube

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