''Infinity'' is the third solo album by Canadian musician

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

, and the first released under his real name. The album was released in October 1998 on Townsend's label, HevyDevy Records.

Background

After the completion of

Strapping Young Lad Strapping Young Lad (SYL) was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, '' Heavy as a Really Heavy ...

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

album ''

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

'' and his solo

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

release '' Ocean Machine: Biomech'', Townsend began to approach a mental breakdown. "I started to see human beings as little lonesome, water based, pink meat," he explained, "life forms pushing air through themselves and making noises that the other little pieces of meat seemed to understand." In 1997, he checked himself into a mental-health hospital, where he was diagnosed with

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

. The diagnosis helped him understand where the two sides of his music were coming from; he felt his disorder "gave birth to the two extremes that are Strapping's ''City'' record and Ocean Machine's ''Biomech''." After being discharged from the hospital, Townsend found that "everything just clicked" and he was able to write his third solo album, ''Infinity'', which he described as "the parent project" of ''City'' and ''Biomech''. Townsend returned to the studio, accompanied by drummer Gene Hoglan, to work on the album, on which Townsend played most of the instruments. During the recording sessions, Devin slept on the studio floor. Devin has claimed Infinity was partly inspired by experimentation with LSD and other psychedelic drugs. A music video was made for the song "Christeen".

Music

The first two minutes of the track "OM" have occasionally been played live as an intro of sorts to other songs, and were demoed for inclusion on '' Addicted'' (later appearing on '' Contain Us''). The "Infinite Waltz" section of "Processional" was later used as the outro to "The Mighty Masturbator" from ''

Deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...

''. The track "Truth" was re-recorded for Transcendence, the seventh studio album by the Devin Townsend Project. "OM" was played live in its entirety in 2017 at the Ancient Roman Theater in Plovdiv. The entirety of the album was played in sequence, along with outtakes Om, Sit in the Mountain, and Processional, in a ticketed live stream concert on February 5, 2022 as part of the Quarantine Concert Series.

Release

''Infinity'' was released in October 1998 on Townsend's independent label, HevyDevy Records. It was distributed in Canada by HevyDevy, in Japan by

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

, and in Europe initially by USG Records and later on by

InsideOut Inside Out Music is a German progressive rock record label originally based in Kleve, North Rhine-Westphalia, and dedicated to the publication of progressive rock, progressive metal and related styles. In 2009, it formed a partnership with Centu ...

and with three bonus tracks.

Track listing

The

release of ''Infinity'' had different titles for several tracks; these are listed in parentheses. The InsideOut release of ''Infinity'' also contained three bonus tracks. The original track listing intended for ''Infinity'' was different from its final release. Due to the record label's time restraints, Townsend could not finish some of the tracks. These were later included on the ''Christeen + Four Demos'' EP. The original track list was:

Personnel

Music

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, keyboards, programming *

Gene Hoglan Eugene Victor Hoglan II (born August 31, 1967) is an American drummer, acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including use of abstract devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms. Though his pla ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Christian Olde Wolbers Christian Francis Olde Wolbers (born 5 August 1972) is a Belgian musician, record producer, and songwriter. He is the current bassist and backing vocalist of the rap metal/nu metal band Powerflo. He is also a former bassist of the thrash metal ...

–

upright bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* Andy Codrington –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

* Chris Valagao Mina – guitar, backing vocal * Erin Townsend, Lyn Townsend, Dave Townsend, Naomi, Tanya Evans, Lara Uthoff, Brad Jackson, Jennifer Lewis – additional vocals * Jamie Meyer – piano solo (track 3)

Production

* Devin Townsend – production, recording, engineering, mixing, digital editing, digital assembly * Mark Gordon – bass engineering * Matteo Caratozzolo – assistance, digital editing * Mark Gordon – assistance * Byron Stroud – assistance * Marty Schwartz – assistance * Ross Gale – assistance * Ramon Donati – assistance * Scott Ternan – assistance * Pete Wonsiak – mixing, additional recording * Matteo Caratozzolo – additional recording * Jennifer Lewis – digital editing * Jamie Meyer – digital assembly * Brett Anthony – digital assembly * Greg Reely – mastering * Tracy Turner – management

Artwork

* Mille Thorsen – layout and design * Aaron Mason – photography

Chart performance

References

External links

''Infinity''
(HevyDevy Records)
''Infinity''
(InsideOut Music) {{Authority control Devin Townsend albums 1998 albums Inside Out Music albums Albums produced by Devin Townsend