A fun (and dare I say) addicting look into the confusing mind of Devin Townsend.

Addicted, the Devin Townsend Project’s follow up to 2009’s Ki, takes a new approach in exploring a career’s worth of musical influences. Townsend is best known as the frontman for Canada's industrial-metal powerhouse Strapping Young Lad, whose sound could best be described as a blend of chaos, electronica, and death metal. On Addicted, Townsend offers a remarkably new sound that breaks cleanly from his past. Most importantly, Addicted is his first work after getting sober, a change that most often is associated with mediocrity in the music business. Such is not the case with Addicted.

What can't be ignored is the presence of European alternative-pop singer Anneke van Giersbergen’s co-vocals, which lends the album a different dynamic than usually heard in metal. When combined with Townsend's “wall of sound” approach to metal (think Frank Zappa meets Pink Floyd meets early Sepultura) a unique sound is crafted — one that at times assaults the senses, and always forces the listener to pay attention to the music.

The album starts with a tease by Giersbergen on the title track, which quickly becomes a chest-thumping romp of metal bombast, fused with pop sensibilities. It's obvious that Townsend is serious about sobriety (without being heavy-handed) when he sings in the chorus, “You're addicted / Which makes it so hard to be your friend.” This is a self-reflection, and public admission of the demons that haunted him throughout his career. Without getting preachy, Townsend is able to deny the charge that the best music is made by addicts.

Addicted doesn't really pick up steam until the fourth track, “Supercrush!” which is a complex blend of pop ballad and metal romp that prominently features Giersbergen; at this point in the record she dominates vocally. “Supercrush” is followed by a risky venture for Townsend, “Hyperdrive!” which is a remake of a song from a previous album (2007’s metal-space opera Ziltoid the Omniscient), and features Giersbergen as the sole vocalist. From here, Addicted takes on a life of its own, with the potential anthem “Resolve!” followed by an embrace of both rock ballad form (“Ih-Ah,” “The Way Home”) and metal excess (“Numbered!” and “Awake!”).

Whereas Ki, the previous album in Townsend's four-album project, was an experimental blend of traditional blues with stripped-down metal, Addicted presents the artist's philosophy on the genre that is often misunderstood by critics — the philosophy that heavy music doesn't always have to be fueled by anger. Addicted is a fun and emotional ride through one of the most complex minds in independent music today. If you have an open mind about music, this album is highly recommended. (4.5 out of 5 stars).