Addicted (Devin Townsend Project album)

Addicted is the second of six albums in the Devin Townsend Project series, each featuring a different lineup and theme.[10] Addicted was written and produced by Townsend. The album features vocals by Townsend along with Anneke van Giersbergen, a former member of Dutch band The Gathering. Brian Waddell and Ryan Van Poederooyen of the former Devin Townsend Band play bass and drums, respectively, while Mark Cimino plays guitar alongside Townsend.[9] Recording for the album began May 6, 2009. The next album in the series is Deconstruction, which was released on June 20, 2011.

According to Townsend, Addicted is an album of "melodic" and "danceable" music but is "much heavier" than his previous albums. Townsend has compared the album's songwriting to his more accessible songs, such as "Life" from Ocean Machine: Biomech (1997), "Stagnant" from Terria (2001), and "Material" from Physicist (2000).[11] The album's production style was directly influenced by Nickelback's 2008 album Dark Horse.[11][12] Townsend has quipped that "Some parts of it sound like Meshuggah, some parts of it sound like Boney M."[11] Addicted includes a new version of the song "Hyperdrive" from Townsend's album Ziltoid the Omniscient (2007), with lead vocals by van Giersbergen, who has performed a cover of the song with her former band Agua de Annique. "Resolve!" was "directly influenced by The Wildhearts" and it bears a resemblance to "Vanilla Radio" from The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed.[13] Unlike Townsend's previous albums, which were usually in open C tuning, most of the songs on Addicted were played in open B tuning. "Universe in a Ball!" was played in open B♭, "Hyperdrive!" in open C♯ (to accommodate the vocal range of van Giersbergen, as opposed to the version of "Hyperdrive" that appeared on the album Ziltoid the Omniscient which was recorded in C), and "Ih-Ah!" and "The Way Home!" in open C.

Addicted was released on Townsend's independent record label HevyDevy Records on November 17, 2009, through their website. Pre-orders went on sale October 6, 2009, with special-edition packages through Century Media's CM Distro website.[14] The album was released on November 13, 2009, in Germany,[15] November 16, 2009, in the rest of Europe, and November 17, 2009, in North America by InsideOut Music.[16] It was released in Japan through Marquee/Avalon on December 16, 2009.[17]

The album features art by Travis Smith, who created the album art for Townsend's previous albums Terria and Accelerated Evolution.[18] The InsideOut releases are sold in a slipcase bearing Smith's Devin Townsend Project logo.[19]

All tracks are written by Devin Townsend, except where noted.