Devin Townsend has officially announced his return with a new album titled PowerNerd, and he has shared the video for the title track.
HevyDevy is not known for under thinking things. When we last spoke to him in December 2023, Townsend discussing the 25th anniversary of his seminal 1998 studio album, Infinity, he was preparing to go to the mattresses, talking about some project called The Moth, with no real details to share except he had the bearing of someone who was about to quote/unquote suffer for their art.
But if there was suffering for PowerNerd, it seems that was done quickly. Townsend wrote all the music in just 11 days, shooting from the hip with a Framus electric guitar, and this is something that we should be able to hear in the record. PowerNerd, the song, does not lack for energy.
“It was a conscious thing,” he says. “I thought, ‘I’ve spent so much time overthinking every aspect of my work – what would happen if I didn’t?’ Maybe I would have the opportunity to be a bit more direct with what it is that I’m trying to do. I really wanted to see if I could cut through some of the meandering.”
But just because this came together quickly, with Townsend trying to get to the idea quickly as possible, doesn’t mean that PowerNerd will be undercooked. It is the first instalment of a trilogy, its sequels having already been written.
The title track – and its gonzo video – have got that signature metal guitar on Broadway vibe about them, big, operatic, theatrical arrangements. And there’s a killer guitar solo that’s appropriately… traditional, and the intensity level is not a million miles off Strapping Young Lad.
The lyrics took a lot more time to come together. The title track is about finding some sense of personal strength, no matter your status.
“I would say that a powernerd would be somebody that has a tendency that society has deemed weak or not valuable, whether that’s empathy or being an insular person or an introvert, and turns that into a type of personal power,” he says. “It’s like, ‘OK, yeah, I’m sensitive to this, that and the other thing, but man, I am going to pull through! I am going to do things with that sensitivity that are rooted in strength.’”
This all ties in with a broader thematic through line of “strength and healing”, and that story won’t all be told via the media of double-kick drums and industrial strength guitar. There will be synths, ballads, acoustic guitars, all kinds of imagination manifesting in sound.
And you can hear it all on 25 October through InsideOutMusic, and will be Townsend's first ever Dolby Atmos release (exclusive to the limited edition 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook).
As for The Moth? It is coming. Townsend says it is the follow-up to PowerNerd, “orchestral, over-the-top, dark and uncomfortable” – and this body of work will be a trilogy completed by the “alien weirdness of ” Axolotl. You can preorder PowerNerd now.
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