I hate pretty much everything I've heard Townsend do outside of SYL, but I haven't heard this one so I'll approach it with no expectations (which is what you should do with everything you listen to tbh).
The opener sounds like the modern incarnation of Alice in Chains taking on a more symphonic approach (especially the chorus). It's very middle of the road and not offensively dull like Epicloud, but it does overstay its welcome.
Then Life comes on, and it's basically just cheesy Green Day inspired early 2000s alt-rock with strings. Have I heard this song in a commercial for a Disney show? It has that cheesy "I'm going to be great!" optimistic feel to it that I can't stand.
Night has a cool synth melody in it that stands out from the rest of the song in that I find it interesting since the rest of the song fails to do anything but plod along. I'm sure Devin put a lot of work into this but this feels like the most corporate of rock that followed the formula on the computer before ****ting this song out to be sung by their beautiful pop stars like Devin. What is the point of making this?
Hide Nowhere starts off at a little faster and has a changeup that would be neat without the vocals, which really drag the album down. It also could have been cut in half and dropped the Extreme harmonies.
Sister has a nice ambient and noise elements. When Devin was writing the song, he must have been like "hey this is getting too interesting, let's put some pointless acoustic guitars and ****ty vocals over this".
3 A.M. has a similar affliction although it's less interesting. Stop singing, Devin. You suck. The song does that thing I've never heard a prog band do where one song goes into the other.
Voices in the Fan is a Bryan Adams song with chugga chugga metal guitars and a neat little choir bit at the end.
Greetings just happens.
Regulator starts off with some standard progressive rock, but is honestly the high point of the album so far until they get to the part of the chart that says "this is where you start singing." It wanders into boring song territory again.
Funeral has a bass build up in the beginning that makes you think "is this going to be a post-hardcore song?" before it goes all 80s glam metal on your ass. One of the worst songs on the album, mostly because of the length. The pop-punk inflections don't help either.
Bastard says it's explicit. Exciting! It starts off somewhat promising until it goes into the main riff.
The Death of Music is 12 minutes long and kicks off with some slow dub. Cool. His vocals don't bring down the rest of the music as much as the rest of the tracks, probably because of how understated it is. Really starts to wear on the nerves from 6 minutes on though after the surprise of it not sucking so bad wears off and his singing gets more like Bono/that dude from Muse. Is this song a metaphor? It starts off minimal and interesting, but then as it goes along and progresses and builds on that beginning, it starts to really suck before it's just talking and a beat, like rap, which is the leading virus causing the death of music. That's deep, Devin.
Things Beyond Things is one of the worst titles I've ever seen. Starts off like a Smashing Pumpkins song before building up to an anti-climax. The song ends with a standalone shriek, the high point of the record.
Conclusion: Devin Townsend remains uninspired and boring as hell. If I found that kind of safety in music appealing I might be into this. 2/10.
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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.
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