25. Nick Pollack Discusses The Devin Townsend Band, Accelerated Evolution

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Nick Pollack, the founder and president of Pitcher List (https://www.pitcherlist.com/), threw me a curve on this episode, sending me into the genre of progressive metal --  a world I had barely explored. He chose The Devin Townsend Band’s Accelerated Evolution as our album to discuss. We talked about Nick’s own history as a guitarist, how one bridges the gap between progressive rock and progressive metal, Townsend’s career as a solo artist and as a member of Strapping Young Lad and how we responded to each track on this album.

In my haste to get to the discussion of this album, I completely forgot to mention the Pitcher List YouTube channel. You can find Nick’s videos right here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pitcher+list. I was also extremely remiss to not mention Nick’s outstanding podcast, Nick Pollack & Friends, especially since he was gracious enough to have me on as a guest recently. Check out all of the episodes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nick-pollack-friends-podcast/id1553698497.

Also, my apologies to Strapping Young Lad and their fans for referring to them as “Strapping Young Lads.”

Nick had recommended that we all check out Devin Townsend’s EMGtv performance of Kingdom, so here’s the link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nubJjB95VdY

0:58 Nick joins the show

2:59 Nick’s journey as a guitarist

6:47 The Five-Percent Rule

8:10 Nick loves riffs

9:22 Which guitarists are Nick’s favorites?

13:39 What does Nick love about progressive metal?

18:01 How Nick got into Devin Townsend

19:23 Al has tried – and failed – to get into progressive metal

Track-by-track breakdown

24:33 Depth Charge

31:48 Storm

34:42 Random Analysis

39:24 Deadhead

42:57 Suicide

47:52 Traveller

53:05 Away

55:59 Sunday Afternoon

1:00:00 Slow Me Down

1:01:49 Nick recounts some of the experience of seeing Devin Townsend live

1:03:59 How Al came to like Accelerated Evolution a lot more after repeated listens

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