“Ocean Machine: Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv” is the latest live album from Devin Townsend and his last under the moniker the Devin Townsend Project. He disbanded the group last year so this live set, recorded with an orchestra, serves as an epitaph for DTP. It marks a couple of firsts with the orchestra being one and the full performance of “Ocean Machine” being the other. But ultimately it’s the last thing from this lineup.

To start off things, Dev does what he has done a few times. He took song requests from fans to create a setlist. This means that many deep tracks get played along side, new material and long time favorites. The added bonus of this first set is the orchestral accompaniment. The orchestra adds a LOT to tracks from the last Devin Townsend Project album “Transcendence” because the songs on that album are more epic than ever. “Stormbending,” “Failure,” “Truth” and especially the massive “Higher” sound even better here.

Doing songs like “Om” and “Bad Devil” are nice to hear along with some of my favorite Devin tracks like “Gaia,” “Deadhead” (a song Devin says he wrote for his wife) and “Deep Peace.” It’s a well balanced set and the band sounds great along side the orchestra. One slight disappointment is that the orchestra is not part of the “Ocean Machine” set. But they are joined by original bassist JR Harder who played on the album. I LOVE that album so it’s really cool to hear it in its entirety.

As I’ve said many times, I am not a big fan of live albums but I will say this: of all Devin’s live albums, I think this one is special. With all of the uniqueness (orchestra, Ocean Machine, song selection), and that this album closes a massive chapter in Devin’s career, it’s really essential for all of his fans. It also can answer the question to those wonder “what’s the big deal about Devin Townsend?” The answer is right here.

Tracklist:

By Request with Orchestra
1. Truth
2. Stormbending
3. Om
4. Failure
5. By Your Command
6. Gaia
7. Deadhead
8. Canada
9. Bad Devil
10. Higher
11. A Simple Lullaby
12. Deep Peace

Ocean Machine
1. Seventh Wave
2. Life
3. Night
4. Hide Nowhere
5. Sister
6. 3 A.M.
7. Voices in the Fan
8. Greetings
9. Regulator
10. Funeral
11. Bastard
12. The Death of Music
13. Things Beyond Things

Label: InsideOut Music
Release Date: 6 July 2018
Release Info: “Ocean Machine – Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv” will be available as a limited deluxe 3CD/2DVD/Blu-Ray artbook (with liner notes from Devin and a special documentary dubbed ‘Reflecting The Chaos’ on the second DVD & Blu-Ray), Special Edition 3CD/DVD Digipak, standalone Blu-Ray and as digital audio download.
Website: www.hevydevy.com