After removing himself from the music industry , Townsend cut his trademark hair off and gave up drinking and smoking . Townsend found it  disconcerting that he had difficulty writing music without drugs , and that he had trouble identifying his purpose as a musician . He spent a year producing albums in absence of writing , but found it unrewarding and decided to  pick up the guitar and just write  . This began a period of self discovery where he learned  how to create without drugs . Over two years , Townsend wrote over 60 songs , and found that they fit into four distinct styles . In March 2009 , Townsend announced his plans for a four @-@ album series called Devin Townsend Project , with the goal of clarifying his musical identity and being  accountable  for the persona he projects to the public . The project 's concept includes a different theme  and a different group of musicians on each album . Ki , the first album of the Devin Townsend Project tetralogy was written to set the stage for the subsequent albums . Townsend channelled his new @-@ found control and sobriety into Ki , a tense , quiet  album , which contrasts with much of the music he had been known for . Additional female vocals were provided by Ché Aimee Dorval ( Casualties of Cool ) . Ki was released in May 2009 . The second entry , a commercial , yet heavy  album called Addicted , was released in November 2009 and features lead vocals from Townsend and Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen . Brian  Beav  Waddell was recruited from the Devin Townsend Band to play bass . Townsend returned to the stage in January 2010 , touring North America with headliner Between the Buried and Me as well as Cynic and Scale the Summit . This was followed by a headlining tour in Australia and a series of high @-@ profile shows in Europe ( for example co @-@ headlining the Brutal Assault festival in Czech Republic ) . He headlined a North American tour with UK label mates TesseracT supporting , which began in October 2010 , and toured in Europe with support from Aeon Zen and Anneke van Giersbergen . The third and fourth albums in the Devin Townsend Project series , Deconstruction and Ghost , were released simultaneously on June 21 , 2011 . In December 2011 all four Devin Townsend Project albums with additional material were released as the Contain Us box set . Townsend performed all four of Devin Townsend Project albums in London and recorded them for a DVD box set called By a Thread : Live in London 2011 that was released on June 18 , 2012 . The first three shows were held at the University of London Union , November 10 – 12 , 2011 . Ki , Addicted , and Deconstruction were each performed on one night , respectively . The show for Ghost was held at the Union Chapel , Islington on November 13 , 2011 . These four shows were each entitled An Evening with the Devin Townsend Project. Despite the Devin Townsend Project being originally a four @-@ album series , Townsend decided to continue working under the moniker and released the fifth album , Epicloud on September 18 , 2012 . Again featuring Anneke van Giersbergen on vocals , Epicloud appeared on several European charts , peaking at number 8 in Finland . On October 27 , 2012 , Devin Townsend performed a one @-@ off show covering his musical career called The Retinal Circus at Roundhouse in London . The 3 @-@ hour performance was recorded in high definition and released on DVD and Blu @-@ ray on September 30 , 2013 . Also in 2012 , Townsend played bass on the debut Bent Sea album Noistalgia . He also produced the record . Another project Townsend has mentioned several times between 2009 and 2012 is Obviouser , an album featuring  creepy , bass driven apocalyptic music  created with an Ampeg rig and an Icelandic choir. Working with many projects simultaneously at that time , Townsend stated in 2012 the Obviouser project is vying for pole position until  he wakes up and says ' he wants to do it '  . fill in the blank  : After removing himself from the music industry , __________________ cut his trademark hair off and gave up drinking and smoking . 
Output:  Townsend