Yeah, there’s a lot of jokes made about the country (The nice & goofy jokes are awesome, while the mean jokes), but a lot of cool stuff has come out of the Great White North. Poutine, maple syrup, and Colin Mocherie are just a pinchful of the things that Canada has given to the rest of the world. Canada has also given us a wide variety of musicians, ranging from good, to okay, to ungodly awful. Today’s review profiles one of Canada’s most popular musicians. One who has gained considerable worldwide fame, and has created some impressive & recognizable music. So, without further delay, here’s a review for Devin Townsend’s incredible 90s masterpiece, Ocean Machine: Biomech.
Background
While he’s highly popular now, back in the 90s, Devin Townsend was something of an unknown player in the world of progressive metal, which was also in and of itself a rather new genre. The world wasn’t very observant of him and his work, but sometimes it takes just one album to get attention. Ocean Machine: Biomech was that attention getter.
The story behind Ocean Machine is an interesting one. Material from this album has been around ever since Townsend was with Steve Vai during his Sex & Religion tour, and songs like Funeral, Regulator, and The Death of Music have been around since his days with Noisescapes. Devin recorded the songs for the album in December 1995, but it’s release was delayed until sometime in late 1996. However Devin decided to re-record the entire album before it was released, with the cited reason being that he didn’t like the recordings. Getting help from Marty Chapman and other musicians Townsend knew, the music was re-recorded at his home studio, and on July 21, 1997, the album was released.
Largely dismissed when it first came out, Devin wasn’t able to get a record label to pick it up, causing him to form his own independent label (HevyDevy Records), giving him an outlet for his solo material. In perhaps a more humorous twist, the original Japanese release was named Biomech, and the artist name was Ocean Machine. A later worldwide release would have a compound title under Devin’s name, and was distributed in Canada by HevyDevy, Europe & America by InsideOut, and by Sony in Japan.
Although it strayed far from his work in Strapping Young Lad, Ocean Machine: Biomech was given favorable reviews. British heavy metal magazine Metal Hammer said this about the album:
“A concept album akin to the sensuality and escapism of Pink Floyd, as Devin lyrically and musically explores real and not particularly uplifting topics such as death, isolation, and depression."
Noise Level Critical said:
“Anyone who heard the Steve Vai album Sex & Religion will know that Townsend's voice is top-notch, with the ability to go from aggressive bark, to high-pitched wail, to soft emotional whisper in the space of one song.”
Songs
Seventh Wave: We begin journeying through Ocean Machine with this song, and it starts with an appropriate poem from the classic poet Lord Alfred Tennyson. It goes something like this:
“O earth, what changes hast thou seen...there where the long street roars, hath been the stillness of the central sea. The hills are shadows, and they flow from form to form, and nothing stands; Like clouds they shape themselves and go.”
After the poem, the song beings. Right away, you’re greeted with guitar work that sounds like thunder, then drums come in like a volley of cannonballs. To top it off, Devin Townsend’s vocals sound like a furious siren, beckoning the listener to jump deeper into the song than they already are in. Seventh Wave is just one of those kind of songs that really has a lot of power behind it, and you can actually believe that you’d hear something like this when you’re out in the open ocean, and a destructive storm is just blasting around. Way to start an album!
Life: Encompassing both the good & bad things that makes our existence grand, Life is at once beautiful, yet somehow painful at the same time. Mixing elements of Ambient-stylings and Progressive Metal, Life feels like a song that’ll just pop into your head at crucial moments in your...life. The drum beats & guitar come down in a steady and fast stream, but it all sounds very organized, yet there’s some sort of ethereal quality to it that I can’t put my finger on.
Night: For a song named Night, you’d expect slow, almost sinister sounding music. To an extent, you’d be right, but for the most part you’re wrong. Night is a very fast-paced song (The drums & guitar come down as swiftly as a rainstorm, and Devin’s voice flies around like lightning), and one that fits very well in a soundtrack for car racing, or just driving during the evening, with the windows down and the cool breeze caressing you. The lyrics are also appropriate, and they deal with love, hate, the rain, and oddly enough, Japan & comic books (The last two are only briefly mentioned). It’s a strange combination, but it works.
Hide Nowhere: We return to the ocean with Hide Nowhere. Much like the first song, this one comes at you loud and fast and furious, yet it doesn’t feel destructive. This time, Hide Nowhere goes for the ethereal/mystical route, with sweeping guitars, powerful & gentle drumming, and Devin Townsend goes between soft vocals, loud (Not necessarily volume, mind you) emotional wavelengths, and what sounds like goofy rambling towards the middle and end. It’s a unique combination of elements that form a rather solid whole, and it just stays in your ears for quite a while.
Sister: Perhaps taking a page out of Type-O Negative’s World Coming Down (Ironic, give that World Coming Down came out in 1999, and Ocean Machine was released in 1997), Ocean Machine comes with 2 soundscape tracks, starting off with this one. Unlike the soundscapes off of World Coming Down, it’s actually hard to pin down how many noises were used in this song. What I can tell you is that I heard seagulls, radio static, thunder, and a host of other things I can’t pick out. Devin sings in this song, but all he says is “Sister”, and something else I can’t fully hear. A rather strange song if you ask me.
3 A.M.: Right after Sister, we get the second of the soundscape tracks. 3 A.M. feels very transcendental, as the instrumentation isn’t very loud, and feels quite mystical. Devin’s vocals are loud either, as he’s singing very softly, almost like he’s trying to be comforting to the listener. This time around, we’re given more consistent vocals. Like so:
“Time will be on my side
No looking back this time
All that I've known is gone
Time to be moving on...”
Just about as many noises are used in this as was used in Sister. But where I could pick out at least a pinch of those noises, I was able to get just about nothing, save for what sounded like people talking from a TV or radio. Again, a rather strange song.
Voices In The Fan: This is such a confusing song. It’s not because of the instrumentation, cause it’s great. It’s not because of Devin’s vocals, as he does a great job of going between what sounds like ranting, to more softer tones. No, it’s the lyrics that make Voices In The Fan sound confusing. The choices made for the lyrics seem to bounce between love & hate, as well as aggressive & mournful. While the lyrics are placed in a proper order, it’s when Devin is singing that for some reason it gets confusing.
Greetings: This is a song where the guitar takes center stage. There’s drums in the song, but they’re meant to support the guitar work, which is loud, fast, and furious. Despite coming in at almost 3 minutes, there’s not much in the way of lyrics (Almost like 3 A.M.). The lyrics are:
“From my world, I bring you greetings
From our world, I bring you greetings
It's so hard to tame them
...it will be so hard to prove them wrong
I believe, we'll lose our world for them...
I believe, we'd throw up arms before
Them...
...And bore them
So call it home”
Again, there’s not much in the way of lyrics as far as amount is concerned, but what the song loses in amount, it gains in lyrical power. Devin almost makes it look like the “greetings” are alive somehow, and that they mean a lot for some reason. Yet again, it’s a strange path to take.
Regulator: If Voices In The Fan was a confusing song, then Regulator is a strange song. For starters, the instrumentation (Thematically, at least) sounds like something robotic or mechanical. The guitar & drums are played at a steady pace, and electronic noises pop in from time to time. Devin shows off an impressive vocal range in this song, going from soft to loud at a moment’s notice. Sadly, this is another song that doesn’t have much in the way of lyrics, like so:
“I'm regulated
I'm regulated
...Odd times and all
Odd times and all
Regulator, no meantime at all
Time won't wait for me”
Ironically, while you can kinda sorta understand the lyrics within Greetings, I’m still scratching my head as to what the lyrics in this song mean.
Funeral: Perhaps out of all the sad songs on Ocean Machine, this one is perhaps the most mournful. Which is ironic, because the instrumentation doesn’t seem to match the general vibe. The guitars & drums seem to give more melancholic feelings than anything mournful, but the quality of the instruments is still top notch. The mournful tones from Devin’s singing is where the power from this song comes from, as the emotions you feel seem quite genuine, and the lyrical choices are appropriate as well.
Bastard: Long. That’s the best way to describe this song. In fact, Bastard is essentially two songs squished together to make one large song. The first part is called Not One of My Better Days, while the other part is called The Girl from Blue City. I should say that it’s actually quite hard to tell when one part ends, and the other begins. The instrumentation pretty much stays the same, adding more to the confusion. There’s a lot of sweeping guitar work, the drums go between loud & thunderous to a more mild but still heavy beat, and Devin’s singing seems to go the same way. Did I mention that the song was long? Yeah, it’s 10 minutes & 17 seconds long. Sadly, I don’t think it works in this case. I would have preferred that the two halves rather be their own songs instead of one large mass, but that’s not my call. Regardless, Bastard sounds good, and actually isn’t that bad of a song.
The Death Of Music: If Bastard was long, then The Death Of Music is longer. 12 minutes & 15 second long, to be exact. Whereas the length for Bastard didn’t seem appropriate to me, in this song I think it’s quite alright. This song is a real test of Devin’s vocal range, as he starts the song in almost a whisper, and over the course of time, he slowly raises his voice until it reaches what almost sounds like hopeful yelling. The range of instrumentation is all over the place. You have guitars, drums, keyboard/electronics, and I think maracas are in there as well. The one thing that the instruments do is proceed along at a fast pace: everything is slow and sinister, almost as if death was stalking you.
Thing Beyond Things: We conclude Ocean Machine with Thing Beyond Things, which is a very haunting song. There’s a lot in this song that deals with dreams, lost memories, and love. The instrumentation is never over the top or bombastic: the guitars tend to be played softly & slowly, and the drums are much the same. Devin’s vocals never stretch into the realm of wailing, but he does get loud when he needs to. The only time the instrumentation & vocals ever get loud is during the two chorus portions of the song, but even then it’s not overpoweringly so. All in all, Thing Beyond Things is a beautiful song to end a beautiful album.....I just wished there wasn’t that surprise scream at the end.
Overall Impression & Rating
Ocean Machine: Biomech is a truly remarkable album. Distancing itself from Strapping Young Lad’s style, Ocean Machine has a beauty, vision, and depth to it that most modern Progressive Metal bands can’t seem to get. It does take some extreme elements from SYL, but Ocean Machine just has more emotion, more range, and just...more. At times some of the shorter songs might be a little weak, but as a whole, this album is one for the ages!
Ocean Machine: Biomech gets a 8 to 9.5 out of 10.
See you all next week, when we’ll be giving some girls a hardy “Bravo!”. Until then, stay Otaku!
* Sorry for posting this one up a bit later than usual. Also, my apologies for not putting up a link for 3AM. I simply couldn't find one!
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