“The idea of lead guitar is that there’s focus put on it, and during this period I just didn’t want any focus to be on me”: How Devin Townsend relied on his production process to deliver his new album from the depths of depression and grief

Devin Townsend.

PowerNerd opens to the exhilarating sound of Devin Townsend in full-bore maximalist mode – but the record soon takes a left turn. The intensity remains but is trained elsewhere, after the Canadian prog-metal maverick was blindsided by tragedy while writing the album.

“The process of making it was so complicated on a personal level,” he says. “We went through a bunch of things as a family that were very upsetting, and so what started as a straightforward party record ended up being this very strange record about death.”