After performing in a number of metal bands in high school, Townsend was discovered by a record label in 1993 and was asked to perform lead vocals on Steve Vai's album Sex & Religion. After recording and touring with Vai, Townsend was discouraged by what he found in the music industry, and vented his anger on a solo album released under the pseudonym Strapping Young Lad. He soon assembled a band under the name, and released the critically acclaimed City in 1997. Since then, he has released three more studio albums with Strapping Young Lad, along with solo material released under his own independent record label, HevyDevy Records. Townsend's solo albums, a diverse mix of hard rock and progressive metal, have featured a varying lineup of supporting musicians. In 2002 he formed The Devin Townsend Band, a dedicated lineup which recorded and toured for two of his solo releases.
In 2007, Townsend disbanded both Strapping Young Lad and The Devin Townsend Band, taking a break from touring to spend more time with his family. After a two-year hiatus, he began work on a four-album series called The Devin Townsend Project, with each album written in a different style. The first two entries in the series, Ki and Addicted, were released in 2009. Townsend scheduled tours throughout Australia and North America in 2010 in support of the albums, and released the next two, Deconstruction and Ghost, in 2011.
Townsend's trademark production style, featuring a heavily multitracked wall of sound, has been compared to the styles of Phil Spector and Frank Zappa. His versatile vocal delivery ranges from screaming to an opera-esque singing, and his songwriting is similarly diverse. Townsend's musical style is rooted in metal, and his albums are written to express different aspects of his personality.
Greetings
Devin Townsend Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
From our world, I bring you greetings
It's so hard to tame them...
It will be so hard to prove them wrong
I believe, we'll lose our world for them...
I believe, we'd throw up arms before
Them...
And bore them
Devin Townsend's song "Greetings" is open to various interpretations, but one possible reading of the lyrics could be that they are a message from an extraterrestrial entity (possibly a being from an alternate dimension) trying to communicate with humanity. The repeated refrain of "From my world, I bring you greetings / From our world, I bring you greetings" could be an attempt to establish contact and emphasize the alien or otherworldly perspective of the singer. The line "It's so hard to tame them..." suggests that humanity (or perhaps a specific individual or group) is difficult to understand or control. The next phrase "It will be so hard to prove them wrong" could be interpreted as a warning that some of the singer's beliefs or intentions might be met with skepticism or resistance from humans. The following two lines "I believe, we'll lose our world for them... / I believe, we'd throw up arms before them..." are ambiguous but could be read as the singer's impression that humans are either in danger of destroying their own planet, or that they are prone to aggression and conflict when confronted with something they don't understand. Finally, the last line "So call it home" could be either the singer inviting humanity to make peace with their otherness and embrace a new sense of belonging to a wider universe, or as a more sinister suggestion that the singer intends to take over or colonize the human world.
Line by Line Meaning
From my world, I bring you greetings
I bring you greetings from where I come from
From our world, I bring you greetings
I bring you greetings from the world we both share
It's so hard to tame them...
They are difficult to control
It will be so hard to prove them wrong
It will be difficult to prove them incorrect
I believe, we'll lose our world for them...
I believe we will sacrifice our world for them
I believe, we'd throw up arms before Them...
I believe we would resort to violence before giving in to them
And bore them
And we would carry the burden of the consequences
So call it home
Despite the challenges, we still consider it our home
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