DEVIN TOWNSEND - ZILTOID THE OMNISCIENT

Devin Townsend is an artist i have been familiar with for some time now but never actually gotten around to checking out any of his stuff. A couple of mates of mine have recommended him to me before and urged me to listen to an album or two

Ziltoid the Omniscient tells the story of an aliens journey to Earth in search of the ultimate cup of coffee. As you may be able to imagine it's all a little light hearted and tongue in cheek, verging on the comedy side of things. Being, i suppose, a sort of sci-fi metal opera there are a lot of tempo changes between tracks which for the most part occur exactly where you would expect them to be as the album flows nicely between more aggressive passages and nice, melodic, progressive interludes.

The record is an entirely solo effort from Devin Townsend and so the drums are programmed. Whereas for the most part this doesnt really hurt the album too much i cant help but find myself being unable to really appreciate how good some parts do sound but rather find myself thinking how much better they could have been had a drummer been hired. It's a small criticism though to be fair.

On just one listen i dont feel i can truly comment on the story as bits of it i think went over my head, i would need a second, more attentive listen to really be able to feel it in that sense. From what i did follow (which is the majority) it sometimes seem to digress a little too much but without giving anything away incase this post intrigues you enough to give it a whirl yourselves the way it is ended will either bring all the loose ends together for you nicely or make you wish you hadn't listened so intently for the last 50 minutes.

Personally i feel the story was entertaining, the music was varied enough to hold interest and even though comedy is not something i usually find myself wanting to have such a strong presence in metal music it's all worked very well, you just need to take it with a pinch of salt and not go expecting anything even remotely serious. How many future plays i give this album however i feel will all depend on my second listen.