Style: Progressive metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Reflections on life, silliness
Thoughts: When was the last time you heard an album with two intro tracks? There aren't many of them, and there are fewer of them that are good. This is one of the very few that meets both criterion.
Listening to the opening notes of Let It Roll I'm overcome with nostalgia. The melody reminds me of the best moments of Devin's discography. It's just an acoustic guitar and his voice, but it's so authentic and it's missing the bombast that so much of his music has. It doesn't last long, by the end of the track the full choir is there and everything is as massive as normal... but those opening notes, those are fucking fantastic.
The album probably really starts with the second intro, that being Hypergeek. It builds up over time until we get the typical Devin sound. Huge guitars, huge choirs and an aggressive yet fun riff. There is a wonderful balance of playfulness and heaviness in this song... and for the entire album for that matter. These two intro songs are great to let the listener know what they are in for over the next hour or so.
Triumph is the first true song of the album and it does everything you would expect a Devin song to do. His addictive voice is front and center. The riffs are fulfilling and fill out the air they take up nicely. It's catchy and Devy's emotive voice helps take the song to heights it couldn't reach without it. It's everything I want from Devin.
That's kind of the long and the short of Synchestra. It's a Devin Townsend album by the numbers. It has the experimentation that the early albums have. It even has the absolute kookiness that was seen on Infinity - Vampolka and Vampira channel huge Bad Devil vibes. Vampolka in particular is one of my favorite intro tracks... maybe ever. Same melody as Vampira... just done in the style of polka. That level of humor hasn't been seen since Punky Bruster.
Some of the songs on here just don't do anything for me though. Baby Song it's cringey and breaks up the flow of the album. Notes from Africa is a bit awkward for my tastes and doesn't do well as a closing track... at least for me.
Synchestra is what I would consider the last truly essential HevyDevy album. It's got a lot of good stuff going for it, but you start to hear a little bit of the train going off the rails. It's loosing a bit of focus, and the following few albums just wouldn't be up to the same quality that I was used to. That said he had one hell of a run.
The fact that all of these Devin albums have been part of the same box set is absolutely mind blowing to me. All of the albums that I love from him in one place. If I got them individually it would have cost me 2-3x what this one set cost. It's one of the single best purchases I've ever made for my music collection.
Written February 5th 2024
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