The Retinal Circus

The Retinal Circus
Live album by Devin Townsend
Released	September 30, 2013 (2013-09-30)
Recorded	October 27, 2012, at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London
Genre	Progressive metal, industrial metal, alternative metal, progressive rock, new-age
Length	128:58
Label	HevyDevy
Producer	Devin Townsend
Devin Townsend chronology
Epicloud (2012) The Retinal Circus (2013) Casualties of Cool (2014)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
About.com	[1]

The Retinal Circus is a live album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend. It was released on September 30, 2013, in Europe,^[2] and on October 29, 2013, in North America.^[3] The audio and video material were recorded at Roundhouse, London, on October 27, 2012, when Townsend performed a special one-night-only concert celebrating and covering his 20-year musical career.^[4]

Concert

In November 2011, after performing a series of special Devin Townsend Project shows, Devin Townsend revealed his plan to perform a one-off concert in London, England, that would cover his musical career from mid-1990s up to that point.^[4] Townsend stated that he wanted to create a "more than musical" show which included a storyline, multiple performers and special effects.^[4] Later he said that the concert would be recorded for future release.^[5]

The concert lasted approximately three hours, and it was divided into two parts, with an intermission in between.^[6] The band consisted of the same personnel as the recent years' Devin Townsend Project line-up, and the special guests were Anneke van Giersbergen and Jed Simon, with Steve Vai hosting the show via pre-recorded video projected onto screens. The setlist was focused heavily on material from Epicloud and a few other albums from Townsend's catalogue; the setlist included no songs from Terria, Accelerated Evolution, Ki and Ghost. Townsend also performed, against his current principles,^[7] two Strapping Young Lad songs. He later stated that this was because of the career-spanning nature of the concert, and playing those two songs was a "closure for him and Strapping Young Lad".^[8] He also wanted to "respect the legacy of the band" and to reconnect and perform again with Jed Simon.^[9]

The concert was one of the most prepared Devin Townsend shows ever, with over a year of pre-production, and it was recorded in high definition with a higher budget and a more professional approach to production than the previous live release, By a Thread.^[4] 5000 people saw the sold out performance, and the concert was also streamed live through Livemusicstage.com.^[10]

Release

The Retinal Circus was released as six different versions. The standard editions feature either a double-CD, double-DVD or a Blu-ray. The Blu-ray version includes the whole concert on a single disc. The digipak edition features both the CDs and the DVDs. Two limited edition box sets were also released: a "clown box" featuring all five discs of the standard editions, limited to 5000 copies worldwide, and a "monkey box" featuring all five discs with a 40-page book, signed lithography print and fan merchandise, housed in a vinyl sized box with a pop-up of the Retinal Circus stage. The "monkey box" edition is limited to 2500 hand-numbered copies worldwide.^[11][12] The album was a chart success in some countries, with the double-DVD version peaking at No. 1 in Finland.^[13]

Track listing

All track lengths taken from the CD release.

All tracks written by Devin Townsend. 

Personnel

• Devin Townsend – vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming
• Dave Young – guitars
• Brian Waddell – bass
• Ryan Van Poederooyen – drums

Guest musicians

• Anneke van Giersbergen – vocals
• Jed Simon – guitars
• Dom Lawson – vocals ("Planet Smasher")

References