ALBUM REVIEW: Ocean Machine: Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv – The Devin Townsend Project

As far as iconic statements go, the humble live album has long been used as a vehicle for great bands throughout the years to demonstrate their live prowess to the public at large. They can also serve as a means of documenting once-in-a-lifetime unique experiences too, something that Canadian metal maestro Devin Townsend has pretty much perfected over the years. Whereas recent years have seen the vocalist dive headlong into big theatrical stage show productions for the likes of The Retinal Circus and Ziltoid Live at the Royal Albert Hall, this latest endeavour sees Townsend and his DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT bandmates taking, as the title suggests, to Plovdiv’s Ancient Roman Theatre armed with both a fan-pleasing canon of bombastic metal anthems, and the small matter of an entire orchestra.

Split into two distinct parts, the record opens with DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT performing a rare ‘By Request’ set of material from across Townsend‘s career. The effect of adding live orchestration to an already-heavily cinematic sounding band cannot be overstated from within moments of even the first song, as Truth immediately kicks off proceedings with a forceful blast of choral jubilance and sheer musical excess of the greatest kind. What follows is the remainder of a twelve-song opening set that runs the full gamut of Devin Townsend‘s back catalogue, from recent cuts like the completely overblown brilliance of Stormbending, all the way through to more early-career picks like Bad Devil,  and even rarely-played gems like Om (here given a distinctly NIGHTWISH-esque flavouring thanks to the orchestra). It’s a purely fan-pleasing affair that really serves to showcase the immense musical range of the man himself; deftly able to switch gears from the space-opera metal of By Your Command to the far more subdued balladry of closer Deep Peace seemingly on a dime at the performance goes on.

Of course, this is merely the appetiser, and the second half of the record proves its real centrepiece, as Devin Townsend and his bandmates launch into an in-full performance of 1997’s Ocean Machine: Biomech – once again orchestrally-backed to perfection. In fact, nearly everything about this portion of the record feels perfectly-realised, from the Alfred Lord Tennyson-quoting that begins opening track Seventh Wave, right the way through to the hauntingly-sparse closer of Things Beyond Things. It’s of course in this set that a few more fan-favourite tracks finally get to make an appearance too, from the deceptively-bleak pop-metal of Life, to the far more straightforward heaviness of moments like Bastard. Of course, every moment is performed to the impossibly high standard that DTP fans are probably used to by now, with drummer Ryan Van Poederooyen in particular putting on the showcase of his life in amongst the symphony of guitars, bass and keys set out by Dave Young, Brian Waddell and Mike St-Jean respectively, as the quintet cruise through a set that’s as equally heavy as it is at times almost-poppy.

Given its near-two and three quarter hour runtime, it’s likely fair to suggest that this is purely a package for the hardcore Devin Townsend fans, but to merely write it off as such would in fact be doing a disservice to just how enjoyable many moments of Ocean Machine: Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv should be to any fans of progressively-leaning symphonic heavy metal. And whilst there might not be any coffee-loving aliens this time around, nor any Steve Vai-narrated overly-theatrical musings on the nature of life itself, what is present on this recording is an encapsulation of a band performing right at their creative peak. If this truly is to be, as Devin himself has suggested, either the final DTP release or at least the last for a long time, then it’s difficult to think of many other more fitting ways in which they could bow out than this brilliantly-affecting celebration of both a fantastic album and the continuing songwriting genius of one of progressive metal’s leading lights.

Rating: 9/10

Ocean Machine – Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv is out now via InsideOut Music.

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