Devin Townsend has shared a new double-single, ‘Prepare For War‘ / ‘The Big Snit‘, the latest piece of the puzzle from his orchestral-metal opus The Moth, out 29 May via InsideOutMusic.
An album over a decade in the making, The Moth lived in the back of Townsend’s mind for years as what he has called his “life’s work”. It only began to take shape around six years ago, when, following an acoustic show in Amsterdam, he was approached by the head of the North Netherlands Orchestra and Choir with an offer to bring orchestral grandeur to his work. He chose to spend those forces on something entirely new, and The Moth stopped being an idea.
The double-single is a visceral, heavy listen, with a video directed by Studio Sparks. Townsend frames it as a soundtrack for an unmade movie rather than a song in any conventional sense. “If you think of it as a ‘song’ it’s not really going to work,” he explained, “but if you think of it as a cinematic ‘experience’ that is representative of the final moments before a ‘fundamental change’, it’s a cool adventure.” The war at the heart of the track can be read as two warring factions reaching a final battle, or as a metaphor for internal struggle. As Townsend put it, “the fastest way out is through.”
The name ‘The Big Snit‘ is borrowed from a Canadian National Film Board short cartoon Townsend grew up with, reimagined here as a heavy metal version of the original.
The Moth arrives in three parts. Alongside the main album, The Moth – The Afterlife leans into the grandeur of the orchestra and choir for a purer take on the experience, while The Moth – The War captures the raw emotion of the live debut staged in the Netherlands in March 2025. The record features a remarkable cast of collaborators, among them the North Netherlands Orchestra and Choir, longtime band members Darby Todd, Mike Keneally and James Leach, and guests including Steve Vai, Anneke van Giersbergen and Lynn Wu (Ou).
If The Moth has a central theme, Townsend names it plainly as true self-acceptance, a willingness to face the uncomfortable without turning away. “The most obvious metaphor for change within the concept of this project was a moth: from caterpillar to an entirely different creature, one so drawn to the light that it burns itself away. What remains is immutable, only the spirit.”
He also returns to the road this autumn with the 23-date UK and Europe ‘Metamorphosis‘ solo tour, taking in Birmingham, Bath, Southampton, Exeter and London’s Union Chapel before a second UK run through Brighton, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds in October.
We have always found Townsend to be one of the few genuinely singular voices in heavy music, and The Moth sounds like the fullest expression yet of an artist who has never once played it safe.
