Canadian musician/producer Devin Townsend (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, STEVE VAI, LAMB OF GOD, DARKEST HOUR, GWAR) has set "Epicloud" as the title of his next album. According to Devin, the CD's musical direction will be "big, heavy, romantic kind of melodic stuff. Pretty, ethereal and simple." He adds on his Twitter profile, "My head's been in a new place as of the past few weeks. Been biking quite a bit and learning LYNYRD SKYNYRD songs on bass. Writing lots for 'Epicloud'."

And if that isn't all, Devin will also release an 8 disc (!!!) box set through InsideOut Music which is set for release this November.
DT: I just finished the box set, and it's pretty epic... 6 CD´s and 2 DVD´s full of new material. Plus a 72 page hardcover book and everything including the kitchen sink basically...

The next album from Canadian musician/producer Devin Townsend to be released under the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT banner is "Epicloud", a "poppy, proggy" record which will feature a guest appearance by former THE GATHERING frontwoman and previous Devin collaborator Anneke Van Giersbergen.

The idea for "Epicloud" came about while Devin was attempting to write material for the follow-up to his 2007 "Ziltoid The Omniscient" concept album about a fictional extraterrestrial being named Ziltoid from the planet Ziltoidia 9.

In a recent interview with Soundwave TV, Devin stated about how "Epicloud" was conceived, "In this sort of process of writing that I've discovered that I guess I'm capable of now, with a sober frame of mind, part of that is just not second-guessing it, so if I write something like that, I just do it, and just finish it."

He continued, "Over the past couple of years, I thought, 'OK, I've gotta write this next 'Ziltoid' thing; I'm inspired to make this epic space opera and, like, really overdo it, and [make it] really dark. And so I sat down to write, but every time I went to write, I'd write some poppy hard rock thing. And I was like, 'OK, we'll get that one out of the way and then I'll write 'Ziltoid'.' And I got it out of the way and I'd go write 'Ziltoid'. And I'd write another one. So I'm thinking, 'OK, it's pretty obvious to me that I've got this that wants to come out before that.'"

Anneke, who is scheduled to record her parts for "Epicloud" next month at Devin's studio in Vancouver, stated about what fans can expect from the project, "For now, I only heard the demos. Initially, [Devin] said it would be a softer album, but I think it's going to be very intense and diverse, and also heavy. It's progressing as we speak. It's going to be very, very nice."

Regarding the musical direction of "Epicloud", Devin told Noisecreep, "Over the course of the full record, there's sort of new agey stuff, jazzy stuff, really heavy stuff. We basically cover the gamut. 'Epicloud' is the first record that I felt confident enough to include all those things on one record so it goes between melodic hard rock to schizophrenic heavy metal to country to really ambient stuff and it's all in one place. I'm using a gospel choir, a string section and a horn section for this one as well. On [the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT album] 'Deconstruction', I got to use the Prague Philharmonic [orchestra] and really go far into making an absurd album as over the top as possible and on 'Epicloud' I'm trying to take the same advantages to make some things musically very pleasing, as opposed to just claustrophobic."

Je prédis un 5/5 absolument dithyrambique sur NIME et FP, avec une avalanche de commentaires tous plus extatiques les uns que les autres, sur ce futur nouveau chef d’œuvre de la musique moderne du XXIème siècle (avant la suite qui doit sortir deux mois après)...