| Madaji | 12/20/2011 |
| The Devin Townsend Masterpiece |  |
This box set is incredible. With an 80-page booklet being the base of the package, all eight discs are housed in the covers, the actual DTP albums; Ki, Addicted!, Deconstruction, and Ghost housed are placed in the front cover; the bonus discs in back. The originals are amazing, as should be expected, as are the bonus discs. You get to watch/listen to several excerpts from different concerts, hear songs that didn't make the cut to be on the DTP albums, and see the promotional ads that Devin and the crew released to hearken the albums' releases. The aforementioned booklet contains stories of the DTP process, pictures from tours, etc., as well as vinyl-sized, thicker pages dedicated to the original artworks of each album (if you didn't know, all of the artworks, possibly excluding Ghost, have been redone and remade). The only downfalls I have found, and do note that I have not had the time to read all of the booklet, nor listen to all of the discs (school comes before everything, guys), are those pertaining to the final bonus disc and the housing of each disc. The final bonus disc is marvelous, to say the least. It gives Devin Townsend's full commentary on each of the four DTP albums, concert recordings, etc. The problem lies within the formatting of the disc. I have found, though two tests, that this disc is most likely unviewable without a computer. Both of the DVD players told me that the disc was bad. This is merely because most of the recorded material is just that: audio recordings. There are few videos, other than the ads for Addicted!, so videos were probably unnecessary and would have been a waste of money. Also, The commentaries are out of order, starting with Addicted!, moving onto Deconstruction, progressing to Ghost, and finishing with Ki. This may not be major, but I thought I had lost the Ki commentary, until I found it. As for the housing issues, All I really would have liked to see instead would have been cases to carry the discs around. As it is, to transport the discs from place to place, one must have expendable recordable CDs on hand, carry the box everywhere they go, or carry each disc by hand. This is a small issue, but it is still worth mentioning.
Overall, This box set is incredible. Filled with numerous hours of content, plus an 80-page booklet, buyers will not have time to do anything other than listen to/read about Hevy Devy for some time. Definitely worth the $80, and I wish I had gone the extra $20 for the signed edition. Don't wait to buy this thing; there were only 5000 to start with, so get cracking!
|