Devin Townsend 'Agrees' With Some Negative Reviews Of His New Album

While many artists avoid reading reviews of their work for obvious reasons, Devin Townsend is surprisingly on board with the majority of the press coverage surrounding his upcoming 18th studio album, Empath.

In recent years, Townsend has been remarkably open publicly about his own psychology, his shortcomings and his insecurities. It's a little surprising that he would be reading reviews of his ambitious and admittedly expensive new album.

Not only is he reading the reviews (and his Twitter mentions), he's also by his own admission agreeing with his critics.

"I've seen quite a few good, some bad, and some nonplussed reviews for the album, and mostly I agree with them all," Townsend wrote in a Tweet earlier this week. "[T]his was a nice one though and some parts they hit on here I'm glad seem to come through for some folks."

He included a link to the review in question.

Townsend is a beloved or at least thoroughly respected figure in the progressive rock/metal sphere. But still for someone who's as open about his own psychology as Hevy Devy, the fact that he's taking everything is stride is pretty surprising.

Based on the guitarist/vocalist's comments and the two tracks released in advance, Empath is the most sonically dynamic and conceptually haywire album in a 30-year career that has weathered a number of drastic stylistic shifts and thrived despite two albums inspired by puppets (which are great, by the way).

You'd think Hevy Devy would be beyond hearing what people think of him by now — especially after coming out as a friend of Nickelback front man Chad Kroeger — but years of sobriety and all that meditation he says he's been doing seems to be paying off.

You can check out one of Townsend's new songs, "Genesis," below.

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