Album Review: Devin Townsend Project "Epicloud"

I first heard of this guy when he was fronting Steve Vai's kick ass outfit Vai. '93 was a tough time for good music. There was a lot of alterna-bullshit floating around Kurt's wake, and tasteful commercial heavy metal was in short supply. Sex and Religion was truly a breath of fresh air for me as a struggling undergrad at George Mason University, in my second and final semester there. "Down Deep in the Pain" was a great blend of funkiness and hard melody that really got me pumped up to go to Jaxx, where Devin and the boys properly laid waste on the Sex & Religion tour. So what's up with Devin these days? Apparently he's become a bit of a cult figure amongst nu-progressives such as BTBAM, Periphery and Protest the Hero. Let me start by saying I am NOT a fan that style of ADHD Axe FX II wankery. To me it's all over the map and just not my cup of Arizona iced tea. Let's check out the lead-off track: Five seconds in and I'm feeling this. The chick has a bit of Taylor Dayne meets Swedish pop thing goin on, and it sounds pretty hot. When DTP kicks that chorus into full throttle things get full blown and I am ready to cruise down to Richmond with the top down! Verse is pretty tight, although around 1:45 I'm hearing some BS I'm not into. Not sure if this is a modulationing or whatever but it sounds like one of those AXE FX II bands. Getting psyched for that chorus to come back though. Now we're at 2:25 and I feel like I've stumbled into the Summer Slaughter tour. Not digging this. Now we're at 3:00 and the chick is getting into some real dissonant shit. At 3:24 I think I'm hearing a "Let's tear it up" and am ready for that bad ass chorus but they seem to be drifting into some choral outro. No dice! Devin, if you want to write a tune it's ABAB(solo)B. Maybe BABA(solo)B. This might fly on a Dream Theater package tour but it's not going to get any decent airplay. I know you have the talent to write some kick ass material, I've HEARD it!