Devin Townsend said in an Instagram post that he will be releasing a new album, Puzzle, in the next few weeks, calling it a “bizarre project.” The Canadian musician, formerly the head of extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad, said he’s been working on the album for the past few weeks and will be releasing a video along with it.
Townsend said the album is basically done and that he’ll release it when the accompanying video is done. The album will be released “maybe 10 days,” from the time he made the post on Oct. 9, he said. Listening to the album while watching the video is “ how I’d like it to be taken in,” he said.
“It’s sort of an ambient thing I guess, though really orchestrated,” he wrote in the caption. “It’s one of the most cathartic things I’ve done in years. It came out in a fury… so much data in such short time :)”
Townsend, who was the primary songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and later became a successful solo artist, also has an upcoming live concert being released on Blu-Ray on Oct. 23. The performance is from a December 2019 concert in London, England and the Blu-Ray is called Order of Magnitude — Empath Live Volume 1.
It was also recently announced that he will play at the 2021 Brutal Assault Festival From Aug. 10 to Aug. 14 in Fortress Josefov, Czech Republic after the 2020 festival was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Townsend has kept busy during the pandemic, unveiling podcast series called the “Devin Townsend Podcast” in which he discusses the recording process for his albums.
He’s also held a series of live streamed concerts and is planning to hold another at the end of October. Townsend said the upcoming live stream will consist of him playing songs by request and the setlist will be of songs he’s never or rarely played live. All of his live stream concerts have benefited various hospitals and the U.K’s National Health Service.
Townsend, who is known for mixing heavy metal, progressive rock, ambient and new-age music, said in August that he was working on an “abstract and stream of consciousness” album called Lightwork.
Featured image: Raymond Flotat
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