Devin Townsend Recruits Tesseract For North American PowerNerd Tour

11-19-2024

(RAM) Swiftly off the back of the release of his acclaimed new album 'PowerNerd', Devin Townsend is pleased to announce his first North American headline tour since 2020.

Taking place in May 2025, and featuring a bill-topping appearance at Milwaukee Metal Fest, the jaunt also features special guests Tesseract. Artist presale is 12pm ET today, with general on sale starting Friday November 22nd at 10am local time.

"It was a conscious thing," Devin says of his brand-new album, the music on which he wrote in just 11 days. "I thought, 'I've spent so much time overthinking every aspect of my work - what would happen if I didn't?' Maybe I would have the opportunity to be a bit more direct with what it is that I'm trying to do. I really wanted to see if I could cut through some of the meandering."

However, that aggression is far from the only thing to come from PowerNerd's 11 episodic tracks. 'Dreams of Light', by comparison, is an evocative and dynamic four-minute ballad. 'Younger Lover' calms down from an explosive opening to lush verses of synths and singing, whereas 'Falling Apart' adds texture after texture on top of a dulcet, acoustic introduction.

Where PowerNerd's music was written in less than a fortnight, its lyrics were refined over a far longer period of time into a narrative about strength and healing. On 'Falling Apart', Devin commands himself to "keep the tension under control". "You've got to believe that things will only get better," subsequent song "Gratitude" powerfully declares. These uplifting messages even play into the record's title.

Devin offers as a definition: "I would say that a powernerd would be somebody that has a tendency that society has deemed weak or not valuable, whether that's empathy or being an insular person or an introvert, and turns that into a type of personal power. It's like, 'OK, yeah, I'm sensitive to this, that and the other thing, but man, I am going to pull through! I am going to do things with that sensitivity that are rooted in strength.'"

'PowerNerd' is available on several different formats, including a Limited 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook (featuring the album, bonus tracks and Devin's first ever Dolby Atmos mix), Limited 2CD Digipak in O-card, Standard CD, Gatefold LP & Digital Album.

As well as express strength through adversity, PowerNerd will open the door to Devin's immediate future. Its positivity and succinctness will soon be contrasted by follow-up The Moth - self-described as "orchestral, over-the-top, dark and uncomfortable" - and the "alien weirdness" of finale Axolotl. Both efforts have already been written, and together the trilogy will express the mind-boggling range of this man's musical talent.

The full list of dates are as follows:
2-May Nashville, TN - Marathon Music Works
3-May Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
4-May Lake Buena Vista, FL - House of Blues (Orlando)
6-May Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's
7-May Raleigh, NC - The Ritz
9-May New York, NY - Palladium Times Square
10-May Silver Spring, MD - The Fillmore Silver Spring
11-May Boston, MA - House of Blues
13-May Montreal, QC - MTELUS
14-May Toronto, ON - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
16-May Detroit, MI - Masonic Cathedral Theatre
17-May Milwaukee, WI - Milwaukee Metal Fest
19-May Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
21-May Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
23-May Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern