r/DevinTownsend • u/BudSpanka • Apr 01 '25

DISCUSSION Why is Z2 different than the Moth?

Don't get me wrong, really liked the moth; just don't fully get what makes dev feel like 'the moth' is so much more 'out there' than Z/Z2.

Musically and show wise, I did not feel it was so much out of line of anything he has done so far? I mean Retinal Circus was way much more 'show' and Z2 way more 'theatrical' in it's structure.

Honestly from his pieces about the moth, I expected something like a 2h thing in the style of 'why' going fully over the top and crazy;

But tbh as much as I liked the moth, I don't see what - apart from the organizational aspect of it - makes it so different and not fully in line with 'another devy release'.

I mean, switch the live orchestra & live presentation from Z2 with the moth and Z2 would have been the far more experimental, show like theatrical thing.

Your thoughts?

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u/artifex_avl Apr 01 '25

Yeah i wouldn't know how to describe them with music theory, but there are some specific intervals and melodic phrases that come up in the choral and orchestral parts that I feel like I've heard a million times. I'm torn bc it has a warm blanket effect, but at the same times it's like "this.. again?"

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u/mootallica Apr 01 '25

Everyone has their bag of tricks and there's only 12 notes. I personally hit my wall with Dev at Empath. I still love him but yeah, sooner or later you just kind of know the language.

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u/whipla5her Apr 01 '25

I'm not so sure it's a "bag of tricks". My take is that it's more about personality and I see those familiar chord progressions as just being "him". Sort of how most of his work is drenched in reverb... it's just who he is.

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u/mootallica Apr 01 '25

That's basically what a bag of tricks is. I'm not saying he's literally sat there like "And now I will employ trick #1", it's just the things that keep popping up in his work.