Canadian metal vocalist / guitarist / producer Devin Townsend has checked in with the following update.

"It is with great pleasure that I announce my involvement with the Prognosis Festival, held between March 22nd and 23rd in Eindhoven, Netherlands. I will be giving two clinics delving deep into my recording process for the latest record, Empath, with my techniques for both singing and playing the instruments that contributed to its creative completion.

Clinic 1: Guitar 
Friday, 22nd March - 3.10pm to 4.10pm
Tickets

Clinic 2: Vocals & Production 
Saturday 23rd March - 10.45am to 11.45am
Tickets

Finally, I will be performing my new acoustic show to cap off the event. It will be an informative and exciting festival with a ton of great artists involved and I'm also going to be involved in the to be announced music business conference side of the festival, I hope to see you there!"

More information and ticketing details for the Prognosis Festival can be found at Prognosis-Festival.com.

Townsend recently announced the release of his forthcoming new album, Empath, for March 29th.

In the lead up to the album’s release, Devin will walk fans through how Empath came together with a series of documentary episodes recorded as phone conversations during the course of the albums recording. Watch him explain more in this video:

Devin comments: “Hello everybody, this is Devin Townsend and I would like to formally announce that after almost a year and a half of working, I have finished Empath. Now this record has taken me down a lot of very interesting psychological and technical avenues and the process was documented from the very get-go by a series of documentary videos that I have done, that outline everything from the gestation of the idea to the actualisation of it, through all the existential ups and downs that went on. As such this record is different to any record that I have released thus far, and trying to get people on board for what it is versus what it isn’t, I think needs to be dealt with in a different way. Stay tuned for the making of Empath - the video series.”

Over the past few years, the success that Devin has slowly worked for has fortunately come with the power to control his own creative destiny. The recent successes with the DVD from a sold-out Royal Albert hall, or his 2012 Retinal Circus, or last year’s Ocean Machine live DVD with the Orchestra and Choir of State Opera Plovdiv has put him in a position where with the new album Empath, he will once and for all define himself as a musical force outside of any particular genre classification.

On this album Devin has decided to see what would happen if all the styles that make up his current interests were finally represented in one place. To finally shake the fear of expectation, and just do what it is he was meant to do creatively, Empath, true to the name, is about allowing the audience a feeling for a variety of musical emotions. The musical dynamics represented on this single album are broad, challenging, and immense. To approach this sort of work with a long history of what makes heavy music ‘heavy’, allows this to be done with a type of power rarely heard.

Joining Devin on this album is Frank Zappa alumni Mike Keneally as music director, as well as Morgan Ågren (Mats And Morgan, Frank Zappa, Fredrik Thordendal), Anup Sastry (Monuments, Periphery), Samus Paulicelli (Decrepit Birth, Abigail Williams), Nathan Navarro, Elliot Desagnes, Steve Vai, Chad Kroeger, Anneke Van Giersbergen, Ché Aimee Dorval, Ryan Dhale and the Elektra Women’s Choir.

A bold statement with massive production values and dynamic, uncompromised musicality. This is a statement about not only pursuing creative freedom in a conservative scene, but also trying to show that heavy music is truly a valid musical tool.

Empath will be released on Limited 2 CD Digipak (including an entire disc of bonus material), Standard CD Jewelcase, Gatefold 180G 2LP Vinyl + CD + LP-booklet & as digital album.

Tracklisting:

"Castaway"
"Genesis"
"Spirits Will Collide"
"Evermore"
"Sprite"
"Hear Me"
"Why"
"Borderlands"
"Requiem"
"Singularity Part 1 - Adrift"
"Singularity Part 2 - I Am I"
"Singularity Part 3 - There Be Monsters"
"Singularity Part 4 - Curious Gods"
"Singularity Part 5 - Silicon Scientists"
"Singularity Part 6 - Here Comes The Sun"