Devin Townsend - The Metamorphosis Solo Tour

Devin Townsend plays The 1865 on Thursday 3 September, part of a European and UK tour that sees him back on the road for the first time in over a year. He's a Canadian prog rocker who describes his own music as 'speed metal pop songs', a phrase that does a fair job of summing up the way he mixes brutal drumming with broad, atmospheric melodies and open repetition. It's a sound that can shift from heavy to melodic without much warning, and he's built a career around that kind of contrast.

He stepped back from touring last spring to spend more time at home, but he's returning to the stage with a new record behind him. His rock opera The Moth came out on 29 May, and this tour is built around it. The show is called The Metamorphosis, and it's a one-man show, which is a bit of a departure from the full-band setups he's known for. He's taking it across 23 dates in ten countries, and he describes it as a modern one-man-band take with the set changing from night to night. The Southampton date is one of those stops, so what you hear here might be different from what he plays elsewhere on the run.

It's a solo outing, so it's just Townsend on stage rather than a full band. That puts the focus on him and the material he's pulling from, with The Moth sitting at the centre of it. If you've followed his work, you'll know he's not one for playing the same set every night, and that's exactly what he's promising here. The Southampton show starts at 7:30pm at The 1865 in Brunswick Square, and tickets are £44, which includes the booking fee. They're currently waitlist sold out, so you'll want to keep an eye on the official listings if you're hoping to get in.