Devin Townsend is the Canadian Mike Patton, hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia with countless faces and personalities throughout his musical tour de force. Known best for the perverse and cathartic Strapping Young Lad and later his own Devin Townsend Band, he eventually disbanded both groups to expel drugs, demons and dicks in his latest, the Devin Townsend Project. Culminating in the latest joint release of Deconstruction and Ghost, both albums couldn't be anymore polarizing—a constant trait of growth and change in Townsend's music. Deconstruction stands as the most twisted record he's ever spewed, denser than your church's community, trampling over 85% of modern metal acts that have the nerve to act tough. The accompanying Ghost lets up all pressure and weight to take you into multi-instrumental, dream-gazing soundscapes that Townsend only previously spoke mirages of...certainly without chaos, there would be no order.

This Thursday the Devin Townsend Project will be playing at Phoenix Hill Tavern with jazz metal band Obscura, atmospheric doom metalists Septic Flesh and Kentucky natives Sinistral and Driven into Exile. Advanced tickets are $15, available through ear-X-tacy and Ticketweb.com.

Photo: Lastfm/Devin Townsend photo album