Devin Townsend is arguably one of the hardest working and most talented musicians in metal today. Especially over the last couple of years his musical output has been phenomenal. This is also a good moment to offer his fans a sort of career perspective under the guise of the Retinal Circus DVD.
Retinal Circus is the sort of project only Devin Townsend could pull off and get away with. Try to imagine a miniature version of Roger Water’s The Wall – Live In Berlin combined with the typical cheesiness of any given Broadway musical. The whole life performance revolves around a male protagonist called Harold whose quest and dreams form a loose narrative to tie all the songs from the various DT albums together into a somewhat logical sequence. The whole stage show and the entire choreography that comes with it is more than impressive, as it entails choirs, dressed up monkeys, burlesque dancers and a lot of elements from a typical Cirque Du Soleil show. The narrative of the show is provided by Steve Vai, occasionally backed up by Devin Townsend in his role as ringmaster.
The overall set list is a good representation of the complete Devin Townsend discography with songs from Infinity (‘War’, ‘Colonial Boy’), Ocean Machine (‘Life’), Ziltoid The Omniscient (‘Hyperdrive’, ‘The Greys’), Synchestra (‘Vampira’, ‘Vampolka’) and his latest four album tour-de-force (‘Juular’, ‘Kingdom’). There’s even a nod to the old Strapping Young Lad days in the form of ‘Love?’ and ‘Detox’ with S.Y.L guitarist Jed Simon making a guest appearance. One could argue that some of Devin’s albums got overlooked, especially Terria, but with so many songs and albums to choose from it’s inevitable that some painful choices had to be made. Other highlights of the show are Anneke van Giersbergen’s vocal contributions and the trials and tribulations of Ziltoid The Omniscient’s dysfunctional family.
The whole show is superbly filmed and it’s just pure ear and eye candy. There are some occasional hiccups during the performance, but it does fit the whole exuberant atmosphere of the Retinal Circus. What I really like is the honesty of the behind-the-scenes documentary. It makes you really appreciate the gargantuan effort by everyone involved to make the Retinal Circus an experience of a lifetime. In short, this DVD package is a mandatory buy for every Devin Townsend nut out there.
9/10
Raymond Westland