There’s good news, and there’s bad news. The good news is that Ziltoid the Omniscient is the work of one single man: the shamelessly talented Devin Townsend. The bad news is that for everything he is, a drummer is not one of those things. Therefore, all the drumming on this album is programmed, sampled. Don’t let it get to you.
Ziltoid is a space opera, a metal musical that tells the tale of the titular Ziltoid, an alien overlord who comes to Earth demanding the ultimate cup of coffee. Within the first track, By Your Command he gets the coffee, hates it, and decides to destroy the planet in retaliation. And that’s where it gets weird, with space-pilgrimages to space-Buddhas and Ziltoid’s endurance of multiple existential crises. I would also advise to not let the story get to you, because this stuff is pure B-grade 1950’s, boyhood fantasy alien invasion sci-fi at its cheesiest, with everything turned up to 10.
What I find most impressive is the sheer theatricality of the album. Townsend repeatedly displays his skills in multiple nine-minute songs that shift effortlessly, perfectly, between time signatures and keys. By Your Command starts out as a chugging, double bass avalanche backed by the roughest vocals this side of Dethklok, and transitions into a gentle, wafer-thin lament with a classically influenced arpeggio line.
At other times, the music is set to events in the story, specifically battles. Ziltoidia Attaxx!!! narrates the battle for Earth, and captures the hectic gunfire and pounding boots with a marching guitar line and machine gun-fast drumming. Hyperdrive and N9 detail the flight of Humanity through space, and their battle with Ziltoid against the glow of a nebula. The echo is turned way up, and the plodding of spacecraft through the stars fills Hyperdrive. As Ziltoid springs his trap in N9, frenzied drums and a howling chorus wail like banshees as the navies battle in the void.
Multiple songs are conversations between two or more characters, and Townsend establishes a separate musical style that each character ‘talks’ in. Ziltoid prefers the thunderclaps of metal, humans a more ethereal and introspective sound and so on. Stylistic touches like this really turn the album into more than just a cheesy, lame sci fi story, and help it become a cheesy, lame, badass sci fi story.
As said before, towards the end, the story takes a backseat to the music with our closing track The Greys coming into the picture long after I’d lost track of what is happening. Nonetheless, it’s a very soothing melody put to a repeating V – I cadence that captures every element from the whole record into a four minute summary of style.
Ziltoid is a great album from start to finish. Takers must be okay with some harsh vocals and willing to put up with some very extended and repetitive outros to a few tracks, but it is a small price to pay to listen to such a finely crafted work of music. There’s a little something for everyone to enjoy here, and if you can find something here to latch onto, you’ve got a foothold into exploring a very interesting album.
This is some strange stuff. We didn't have this kind of music when I was growing up, at least not that I remember.
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