On a strange night in December 2019, Devin Townsend brought his high wire act to The Roundhouse, a converted railway shed in Camden, North London. It was the penultimate show of the tour in support of his latest album, the breath-takingly intricate and ambitious Empath, which itself found the man who made it consciously throwing off the artistic shackles he'd spent the past two decades wrapping around himself.
This was Devin Townsend without a safety net, as captured on the brand new Blu-Ray/DVD ‘Order of Magnitude – Empath Live Volume 1’. The incredible line-up included guitarists Mike Kenneally (ex-Frank Zappa) and Markus Reuter (Stick Men,The Crimson Projekct), drummer Morgen Agren (Kaipa, Mats & Morgan, Frank Zappa), bassist Nathan Navarro, Haken keyboard player Diego Tejeida, and guitarist/vocalist Ché Aimee Dorval, as well as vocalists Samantha & Anne Preis and Arabella Packford. ‘Order of Magnitude’ is his crowning glory.
After a lifetime of caring – sometimes too much – this is Devin Townsend free and unchained, rising to yet another challenge that he had set.