The Canadian heavy music artist - and founder of extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad - Devin Townsend has recently announced the release of his forthcoming new album Empath for March 29 2019. He's also today revealed the dates for the Empath Europe – Volume 1 tour, including a Dublin date in the Academy on Friday, December 6 2019.

Speaking about the announcement, the artist said: “After a year of intensive recording, mixing, and reflection, I have decided where I want to take the next level of my career as a live performer. I have had success and great memories from both the Devin Townsend Project as well as Strapping Young Lad, but now I am fortunate enough to be able to follow the muse where it currently leads. I am proud to announce that for the first 'band' tour of the Empath cycle, I am going to stretch my wings in ways I have not had the opportunity to do before and tour with a 'backing band' that can shift and morph as the music dictates instead of adhering to a click track. 'Empath Europe Volume 1' will be the first example of this, and the first tour will be in Europe (other territories to follow)."

He continues: I have spent considerable effort think about the things I wanted to do for these shows, and one thing I came out of DTP with was the awareness that I wanted to incorporate a more improvisational element to what I do. With the best players I can find, my plan is to interpret my back catalogue, as well as the Empath material, in ways that may change nightly. less computers, and less of a rigid structure. I want to use Volume 1 as a way to bring my music to people in a potentially new way. People playing music...

I hope you will consider joining me at these concerts. As a performer, it’s important to be able to be willing to react, and my hope is that each of these shows will be a unique experience.

Thank you for allowing me to do what I do. See you there?

Devin Townsend”

Devin Townsend will perform at The Academy pn Friday December 6. Tickets €32 Inc. booking fee on sale Friday February 1st at 10am from Ticketmaster

In the lead up to the album’s release, Devin will walk fans through how Empath came together with a series of documentary episodes recorded as phone conversations during the course of the albums recording. Watch the first episode of that series here: