Devin Townsend's Empathic Mind Quiz

Answer: Castaway

The song "Castaway" sounds as if it was meant to instill a sense of calmness into the listener before the musical storm that lies within the rest of Devin Townsend's "Empath" album. It opens with music someone might hear while vacationing on a beach in Hawaii.

In 2000, Tom Hanks starred in the movie named "Cast Away". In "Cast Away", Tom Hanks' character ends up stranded on an uninhabited island following a plane crash. The photo is from the real life Modriki Island, which belongs to the island nation of Fiji. It was used as the setting for the island in the film.

Answer: Genesis

The song "Genesis" was the first single and music video to be released to promote Devin Townsend's "Empath" album. The music video actually combines the songs "Castaway" and "Genesis" into one video. It features Devin Townsend sitting in his recording studio listening to an mp3 player. As Devin listens to the music, images are displayed in the background seemingly showing the audience how Devin is interpreting the music in his mind. Some of the images show a sense of calm while others display utter chaos. The middle of the song features a choir of cats and even a musical "moo".

The phrase "Let there be light" comes from the "Book of Genesis" in the Bible. It is also included within the lyrics of the song "Genesis".

Answer: Spirits

"Spirits Will Collide" was the third music video from "Empath" to be released by Devin Townsend. It features Devin Townsend playing in a concert from atop an open space "cosmic stage", with the Earth and Sun displayed in the background. The orbital concert venue contains huge speaker satellites as well as a guitar playing gorilla.

The photograph shows a paranormal spirit attempting to haunt a man in a forest.

Answer: cat

"Evermore" was the second track off of Devin Townsend's "Empath" album to be released as a music video. The video features the adventure of an animated space cat who is traveling through the universe. He crashes on a earth-like planet (named Planet Fear in the video) where the video transitions from cosmic imagery to an underwater scene featuring various sea creatures such as whales, sharks and tropical fish. The cat eventually makes his way back into space to continue his journey.

In case you missed it the photograph contains a real cat's face underneath the astronaut's helmet.

Answer: Sprite

The photo depicts the mythical fairy-like sprite taken from various works of fantastical literature. The song "Sprite" off of Devin Townsend's Empath album seems like a song that would fit right in with the soundtrack for the "Final Fantasy" video game series.

The end of the track features a monologue spoken by a character that seems to emulate the character Gollum from "Lord of the Rings" movies. "Sprite" is also the name of a lemon-lime flavored brand of soda owned by the Coca-Cola Company.

Answer: Chad Kroeger

Chad Kroeger provided backup vocals for the Devin Townsend song "Hear Me" off of the "Empath" album. It may be tough to hear Chad, as the song is one of the heaviest of the entire album, featuring vocals more akin to Devin Townsend's Strapping Young Lad years.

As depicted by the photograph, Chad Kroeger is the lead vocalist of the band Nickelback, which performs music that is more geared towards pop rock. Devin Townsend has credited Chad Kroeger for his advice for the type of music that "Empath" should contain.

Answer: Why?

The song "Why?" is one of the softer tracks off of Devin Townsend's "Empath" album. It sounds like a mixture of rock music with a symphonic classical waltz. The song seems to highlight Devin Townsend's vocal abilities ranging from a soft lullaby-ish tone to his usual aggressive tone.

The entire "Empath" album seems to be Devin's take on a "Best of" music album. Instead of being a simple mix of previous songs, "Empath" seems to be a mixture of musical themes Devin has used at different periods of his career. "So why run away? Why? Why? Why?"

Answer: Borderlands

Che Aimee Dorval provided backup vocals for the song "Borderlands" as well as the song "Genesis" off of Devin Townsend's "Empath" album. Che Aimee Dorval had previously released the duet album "Casualties of Cool" with Devin Townsend in 2010. "Casualties of Cool" consisted of soft more country-like ambient music, which at the time was a change of pace from Devin Townsend's usual music.

The photograph features the heavily guarded demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea. "Borderlands" is also a first person shooter video game series published by 2K Games.

Answer: Requiem

In Devin Townsend's "Empath" album, the song "Requiem" is an instrumental track. "Requiem" was also one of the defining works of classical musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). A requiem is defined as "any musical service, hymn, or dirge for the repose of the dead". The name of the work is fitting as it was the final piece produced by Mozart before his death in 1791.

The photo is of a memorial dedicated to Mozart that stands in his home country of Austria.

Answer: Singularity

The song "Singularity" off of Devin Townsend's "Empath" combines six portions of music into one 23-minute long track. The six parts are labeled "Adrift", "I Am I", "There Be Monsters", "Curious Gods", "Silicon Scientists" and "Here Comes the Sun!". Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen (who has been previously featured on various other Devin Townsend albums) provides backing vocals for this track as well as the song "Hear Me". Steve Vai, a musician who served as sort of a mentor to Devin Townsend, also made a contribution to the song "Singularity".

The photo depicts an astronomical singularity, a source of immense gravity that exists at the center of a black hole.