Devin Townsend, a heavy metal artist, has continued to keep his fans invested in the detailed process of creating his long-awaiting eighteenth studio album Empath. The PRP reported that multifaceted artist Steve Vai and frontman Chad Kroeger of Nickelback are just some of the people expected to be involved with making this new record.

Late at night on December 2nd, Townsend took to Twitter to share his thoughts and connections to this album after finishing a mixing session for the album.

He started off his lengthy online entry with by reassuring fans that he hasn’t gotten any sleep, but he has reached the final stages of the album and he expects the album to be wrapped up in a few weeks.

He continued by mentioning the impact this album has had on his life over the the time he’s been creating it. Townsend said, “Listened to the thoughts of Empathy in the flight and it had me feared to the whole way. I haven’t had this visceral a reaction to the work in many years. To think it all stemmed from taking a vacation. My god; what an intense period this has been. I’ll remember  this last two years.”

Townsend thanks for all those who have worked with him on this journey to creating this special piece of art to him and guiding him to complete the album with his original vision always in minds. “Exhausting… pure catharsis. It was about middle age, realization, fear, death, moderation, meditation, and overcoming the internal dialogues. I guess it was ultimately about getting it right after all these years then kind of realizing that you just have to let it all go…”

Over the course of this year, Townsend has been teasing fans with snippets and excerpts to this project and many others he’s been working on since his previous projects. In one instance, he mentioned that he was in the works of creating four different project with various styles and had composed 100 different songs to support that claim. He later went on to express how he wanted to have Empath released as a double album and a documentary to be filmed to document Townsend’s process of creating this record. Throughout the past month, he started to tease his listeners with snippets of his album and an announcement of an acoustic winter tour in 2019.

The news of Townsend and Kroeger collaborating for Empath may sound absurd due to it was only until recently, that Townsend took to Twitter to apologize for his years of public backlash against Nickelback. Over time, Townsend learned to respect Kroeger and his music and building a strong friendship.

As of right now, it is safe to say that Townsend’s forthcoming album will have a release in March of next year.

At the end of his public expression for his album, Townsend took to Twitter to tweet this last message, saying, “There’s a reoccurring theme on this project that seems to have appeared, and that seems to be one of ‘anti-suicide.”

Read to follow the full series of tweets Townsend wrote about Empath.

No sleep tonight. I’ve got the final stages of this year long process rolling through my mind. Almost done…another 3.5 weeks and this stage of it (the album) will be wrapped up.

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Listened to the roughs of Empath on the flight and it had me teared up the whole way. I haven’t had this visceral a reaction to the work in many years. To think It all stemmed from taking a vacation! my god, what an intense period this has been. I’ll remember this past two years.

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Thanks to some further guests, Anneke Van Giersbergen, Che Dorval, Chad Kroeger, Mike Keneally, Steve Vai, Lords Of The sound orchestra… it’s been total catharsis and tied intrinsically to the process of working through this transformation. It’s a lovely, complicated, weird one

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Some people will totally love it, a fair amount will take awhile to have it sink in, some won’t get it at all, some will definitely prefer the bonus disk or the previous work, but fuck me, did I ever need to get this out of my system. It’s like 12 years of vomit at once…

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

I had a choice to either go commercial or uncompromised on this. Thanks to Garth Richardson and Chad for convincing me to not compromise. It’s a hard choice as you get older because the temptation to play it safe is huge for the sake of family and security.

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Exhausting… pure catharsis. It was about middle age, realization, fear, death, moderation, meditation, and overcoming the internal dialogues. I guess it was ultimately about getting it right after all these years, then kind of realizing that you just have to let it all go…

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Music is just an expression of gratitude I think. Ultimately it’s just another album in a long line of albums, some will like it, some won’t. But it appears as if it will be accurate, and that’s a huge huge relief.

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Three drummers, two bassists, orchestras, choirs, ducks, cats, goats, birds, whales… and I didn’t sabotage this one, for once…

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Have to be at the studio in 3 hours after a sleepless night. Sweet. Luckily it’s not an immensely complicated mix

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

There’s a reoccurring theme on this project that seems to have appeared, and that seems to be one of ‘anti-suicide’

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) December 3, 2018

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat