In the Premier Guitar clip below, the once Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend, chronicles the "pinnacle moment" with the Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing riff that helped him earn "social collateral" and he became "moderately accepted" with schoolmates. 

Warning: Devin Townsend says he hasn’t played the riff in Judas Priest’s "The Sentinel" "for enough years that it may be dubious." But that’s hard to believe when he delivers the soaring line that’s the hook from this Defenders Of The Faith (1984) track. Townsend describes his initial discovery of the song as "one of those pinnacle moments." He also opens up about being a misfit kid, and tells a great story about overhearing older kids in band class talking about guitar—and how that riff suddenly made him one of those "cool kids" … almost. 

It’s the guitar, he says, "that made me at least moderately accepted, and that still holds true to this day." He also takes a lick at Fastway’s "Say What You Will", a hard-strutting blues-based riff, and Priest’s "You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'". But perhaps the biggest revelation is that the first riff he fell in love with was from Johnny Cash’s "Folsom Prison Blues". And yes, he does play it, plus the galloping rhythm. His next biggie was Motörhead’s "Motörhead". 

"But none of that, my friends," he adds, "compared to the social collateral or being able to impress a bunch of goofy 16-year-old with a Judas Priest riff, so I will be eternally indebted to this riff."

On the heels of the release of his new album, Lightwork, musical mastermind Devin Townsend has released another music video from the album, for the song “Heartbreaker”. The video follows four different versions of Devin compiling the track in his home studio. Watch below:

This past weekend, Devin presented a special streaming event to commemorate the release of his new album. Watch him perform tracks & answer fan questions below:

After a few exceptionally long years full of personal change and near manic levels of creative activity, Canadian musician Devin Townsend releases his follow up to 2019’s well received Empath in the form of his new release, Lightwork. Assembled from a barrage of material written during the pandemic, Lightwork (and its companion album of B-sides and demos; Nightwork) represents Devin at this stage of his life, post pandemic, and his reflections on what he (and many of us) have all gone through.

For Lightwork, Devin decided to see what would happen if he included a producer (an experiment he has been excited to attempt for some time) to help guide this selection of material. He chose long-time friend Garth “GGGarth” Richardson to help bring this idea to fruition, and through a difficult (but wonderful) process, the next Devin album have been delivered. The name Lightwork represents the music, as well as the act of creating music, as a kind of ‘light in the dark’ while trying to navigate the seemingly endless challenges that life can often present. When things seem like there’s “no way out” or that a situation becomes seemingly insurmountable, the connection to music, family, and creativity became a light in the dark that is the bedrock of this wonderful album.

Featuring artwork by frequent collaborator Travis Smith, Lightwork arrives in several editions including a Limited Deluxe Orange 3LP+2CD+Blu-ray boxset that includes both Lightwork & its companion album Nightwork on both CD & Vinyl, as well as a Blu-ray including 5.1 surround sound, album commentary & visuals, art-cards & extensive perfect-bound booklet, all contained in a lift-off lid box. There will also be a Limited 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook, Limited 2CD Digipak, Gatefold 180g 2LP+CD, Standard CD Jewelcase and Digital Album.

Order here.

Tracklisting:

"Moonpeople"
"Lightworker"
"Equinox"
"Call Of The Void"
"Heartbreaker"
"Dimensions"
"Celestial Signals"
"Heavy Burden"
"Vacation"
"Children Of God"

"Call Of The Void" video:

"Moonpeople" video: