Accelerated Evolution is the sixth studio album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend, released in 2003. The album, written and produced by Townsend, was a mix of musical styles from alternative rock to hard rock to progressive metal.[1] Townsend, the lead vocalist and guitarist, assembled a group of Vancouver musicians to perform with him on the album: guitarist Brian Waddell, drummer Ryan Van Poederooyen, bassist Mike Young, and keyboardist Dave Young. This lineup, the Devin Townsend Band, was Townsend's first dedicated lineup for his solo material, and was created as a counterpart to Townsend's extreme metal project Strapping Young Lad.
Accelerated Evolution was written and recorded at the same time as Strapping Young Lad's self-titled album, with Townsend dividing his energy between the two. Accelerated Evolution was recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, from September to November 2002, and was released on Townsend's independent label, HevyDevy Records, in March 2003. The album was well received by critics[2] for its blend of genres and influences, its musical accessibility, and its large-scale rock production style.
Background
During the creation of his early solo albums Infinity (1998) and Physicist (2000), Devin Townsend's writing ability was affected by personal struggles. These were resolved during the creation of the album Terria (2001) and Townsend felt a newfound enthusiasm for his music.[3] In 2002, Townsend began work on his next two albums and reunited his extreme metal project Strapping Young Lad, which had been on hiatus for four years.[4]
Townsend formed a new, permanent band called The Devin Townsend Band to record and tour his solo releases. It consisted of Brian Waddell on guitar, Ryan Van Poederooyen on drums, and brothers Mike Young and Dave Young on bass and keyboards, respectively. Townsend performed guitar, vocals, and production. Townsend chose members of local bands who had different life and career experiences than him to provide fresh perspectives on his music.[3] Townsend wrote and produced the band's first album at the same time he was working on an album for Strapping Young Lad called SYL,[3] spending half the week on one and half on the other.[5] The album was engineered and mixed by Townsend and Shaun Thingvold, who worked on many of Townsend's and Strapping Young Lad's albums. The album had the working title Relationships,[2] but was renamed Accelerated Evolution, a nod to the frantic pace of putting a new band together in under a year.[3]
Songs such as "Storm", "Suicide", and "Sunday Afternoon" were noted as "less frantic and more mature" than songs on Townsend's Infinity album.[8] "Deadhead" derived its name from an extreme industrial metal track with the same title from Godflesh's 1989 album Streetcleaner.[10] Townsend's goal was for the album to be commercially viable, making his existing style more concise and accessible but avoiding pop music characteristics.[3] Townsend utilized clean vocals much more than in his previous albums, and produced and mixed the album in his trademark wall of sound style, blending layers of guitars, keyboards, and vocals.[6]
Release
Accelerated Evolution was released in March 2003 on Townsend's independent label, HevyDevy Records. It is distributed in Canada by HevyDevy, in Japan by Sony, and in Europe and North America by InsideOut. The album art was created by Travis Smith. InsideOut also released a special edition of the album which contained a 3-track EP called Project EKO, Townsend's first foray into electronica.[11] The album reached number 135 on the French albums chart[12] and number 249 on the Japanese albums chart.[13]
After the release of Accelerated Evolution, Townsend toured with The Devin Townsend Band, at times separately from Strapping Young Lad[14] and other times sharing the bill.[15] After playing two release shows in Vancouver in July 2003,[16] The Devin Townsend Band toured Canada with Strapping Young Lad and Zimmers Hole in October 2003.[17] This was followed by a North American tour with progressive metal band Symphony X through November and December 2003.[17][18]
Accelerated Evolution was well received by critics.[2] Critics cited that the album blended different genres of music, making it accessible to a wider audience.[9][20][1] However, Thomas Hatton in writing for Treble Magazine said that the album's wall of sound characteristic will take some time to be appreciated by new listeners.[21] Xander Hoose of Chronicles of Chaos compared the album favorably to SYL, saying that Accelerated Evolution's songs had more variation and were more layored, multi-dimentional, and memorable than SYL.[8] Mike G. of Metal Maniacs called Accelerated Evolution "the album of the year".[9]
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