Devin Townsend Wants to Work With Metal Vocalists

The thing is, it nearly happened. Strapping Young Lad mastermind Devin Townsend and Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt almost collaborated on Townsend's 'Addicted,' the second of four records the Canadian metal maven's been working on in recent years as the Devin Townsend Project. It would have been the collabo to end them all ... but don't worry, says Hevy Devy.

"It didn't happen because it's not meant to happen yet," Townsend tells Noisecreep. "Him and I have been jousting back and forth to get something together for a long time, but I mean, again ... it's like I wanted him to do something on 2006's 'Synchestra,' but it didn't come together."

Noisecreep recently spoke with Townsend at length about 'Addicted,' which is, at its heart, a heavy metal pop record, featuring dual vocals from Townsend and ex-Gathering frontwoman Anneke van Giersbergen; the record is due in stores Nov. 17. But it almost also featured Åkerfeldt's pipes, which would have made it a collaboration of the titans.

"I sent him the files for 'Addicted,' and he had just come off tour, and had no place to record it, but he tried," Townsend explains. "He's a good friend. I love that guy. If you've got friends, and they can do things you can't, it would really help. We couldn't get it together for 'Addicted,' but it's going to happen. It's going to happen.

"For [the third DTP album] 'Deconstruction,' my thought at this point is to have a bunch of heavy metal singers on it, but I may end up doing a choir. The thing for me is, I sing because it's the easiest way for me to facilitate my ideas, and I think I got a good voice, and I do what I do well. But I love singers, dude, and I love playing guitar, because singing is a drag."

So for 'Deconstruction,' an album Townsend says he's about halfway through the recording of, who would he like to growl on the record beyond Åkerfeldt?

"Randy Blythe from Lamb of God has a great way of snarling his words out," Devin says. "I love singers. Tim 'Ripper' Owens ... that dude is ridiculous. One of the best metal singers I've ever heard. That dude from Talisman ... Jeff Scott Soto. That guy is crazy good. Ultimately, I'd love to have singers that's are amazing so I can just sort of riff out. It would be killer."

According to Townsend, 'Deconstruction' is a dark, metaphoric and insane-sounding LP, and it was the only one of the four he's dreaded working on. "It's because of the whole concept ... of going to war with yourself," he says. "But, I've been digging it, because if you're going to war with yourself, you're going to win ... so relax. Either way, you're going to win. It's some complicated s---, and it's over the top. I'm just going for a cannonball, and just going for it, and we'll see what happens."