Devin Townsend is not slowing down this year; only a day after his announcement that he will be working on a new studio album, the performer has released a 15 minute demo of various song ideas online.  The video, entitled “Demo Sketches, Post Empath,” display his amazing sonic range, while visuals of a few comical, and absurd pictures are shown as the piece’s visuals.

This new demo is a mix of many different sounds, blending hard hitting heavy metal, dark acoustic rock chords, parts that feature synthesizers, and even some more dreamy melodic moments. This range of styles is likely to be explored in Townsend’s upcoming tour, where the performer plans on tackling different styles across each concert performance. This upcoming tour will conclude with a performance of Empath in full by 2020.

“Heres a bunch of shrapnel Im working on. No idea what any of it will be for yet, some are relatively complete demos, some are just a riff or melody,” Townsend wrote on the YouTube description for the video. “I always write, this stuff has been on my mind over the past few months, but I’m not really ‘writing’ yet, per se. Thought you might enjoy hearing a bunch of brain vomit. some of it is ok I think. I won’t really be ‘writing’ for some time yet, but this gives you an idea of how my process goes… I just jot down things as they come without judging them too much at this stage. Lots more than this, but these are whas on my mind most atm I guess.”

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat