Casualties of Cool is a Canadian country rock duo consisting of Devin Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval. Townsend founded the project in 2010, and officially announced it in 2012. The duo's partially crowdfunded self-titled debut album was released in May 2014. It is a musical departure from any of Townsend's previous works, primarily because it is a concept album that features country-influenced songs with blues rock and ambient influences.

Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also had an extensive solo career and has released a total of 28 albums across all of his projects as of 2022. Townsend described the sound of Casualties of Cool as like "haunted Johnny Cash songs" and "late night music", highlighting it would be different than anything he had done before.

Ché Aimee Dorval is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Vancouver with an extensive solo career, she released Dorval in 2006 and Underachiever in 2009 before partnering with Townsend. Casualties of Cool released their eponymous debut album in 2014, followed up by a highly successful UK tour that included a performance at London’s Union Chapel. In its review of the concert, Metal Hammer wrote that “Che was born with the ability to melt hearts with a single syllable.”

Townsend described the story of the album as being about a traveler that is lured to a sentient planet, which feeds on the traveler's fear. The traveler finds solace in an old radio and later an old phonograph. Eventually, he confronts his own fear, and his "force of will to not submit to the fear" liberates a woman held inside the planet, which also frees his own soul.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_Cool

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devin_Townsend

https://www.discogs.com/artist/3712038-Casualties-Of-Cool

https://www.last.fm/music/Ch%C3%A9+Aimee+Dorval/+wiki