Anteater

Nobody likes a shitty cup of coffee...but if Starbucks gave you a dud, would you destroy the whole planet in retaliation? That's the moral dilemma given to us by monsieur Townsend in this epic, epic album about one alien and his quest to drink the best cup of coffee in the universe. And as far as solo albums go, its definitely one of the best you'll ever hear from anyone. Vocals, instrumentation, production...everything's done by Devy himself without much help. I'd probably go crazy after four months in a studio trying to painstakingly piece together something even half as cohesive & interesting as Ziltoid The Omniscient, but maybe that's just me.

Sonically, this sucker lies somewhere between Strapping Young Lad and the more strident, symphonic direction that Devin tends to take with his solo material or poppier Project excursions like Addicted! and Epicloud. Fun ride all the way through too: 'By Your Command' takes us through the opening act of the narrative like some sort of marching anthem as the Drumkit From Hell blasts from behind before segueing into some gorgeous harmonies by the mid-point, and that's just the start! Other highlights include the endemically wonderful 'Hyperdrive' with its monster hook, the Floydian 'Color Your World' and the fist-pumping 'Planet Smasher', but even the interludes do their part just fine. There's a lot of narration interspersed throughout the album that makes this sound more like a "musical" than a concept record, but they're integrated so well that as far as rock operas go, you can't help but feel invested in Townsend's B-Movie invasion musical scenery as it flows by. That's normally very difficult to map out on paper, and even harder to implement as a singular vision of some kind...but Devin pulls it off like it's the most natural thing in the world.

I'll finish this little review by saying that honest-to-God GREAT concept records are really hard to come by, prog or metal or otherwise. There's a reason people still talk about Operation: Mindcrime nearly three decades later while others have fallen to the wayside. While every once in awhile a concept album gets absorbed into pop culture due to accompanying visual material rather than the strength of its overall musical vision (like Pink Floyd's The Wall), Ziltoid is undoubtedly a masterpiece of focused, unbridled genius in melodic metal that would succeed even without a movie adaptation. It even comes with a sense of humor!

10/10

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