Wiki
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Release Date
18 May 2007
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Length
11 tracks
Devin Townsend - Ziltoid the Omniscient (2007)
allmusic informations
Review by Cosmo Lee
Ziltoid the Omniscient is a rock opera about Ziltoid, an alien who approaches Earth and asks for the planet's "ultimate cup of coffee." Finding it "fetid," he attacks. However, the narrative isn't highly evolved. The humans escape his clutches, Ziltoid suffers a number of setbacks (and resulting existential crises), and the end implies that it was all just a dream. But while Devin Townsend won't win any screenwriting awards, his production and songwriting are peerless. Like his other projects, including metal band Strapping Young Lad, this record carries Townsend's signatures – bright melodies, heavy guitars, complex composition, clear production, and tongue-in-cheek grandeur. Townsend's work is consistently excellent, but here he fully taps his mad genius for an incredibly compelling experience. On this solo effort, he's responsible for all instruments, a fearsome array of singing voices, and programming "the Drumkit from Hell," a software drum set used on Meshuggah's Catch Thirty-Three. "By Your Command" recasts Pink Floyd as technical death metal; it's an eight-minute behemoth that morphs from pulverizing metal to rich vocal harmonies and luscious arpeggios, interspersed with cinematic dialogue. With its sonorous singing and poppy chords, "Hyperdrive" could be a radio hit on Mars. "Solar Winds" grows from a heavy crawl into a thermonuclear storm of thundering riffs and cascading melodies. The nearly ten-minute "Color Your World" features Townsend's most endearing trademark – setting up a bed of punishing metal, then pulling the rug out to reveal beautiful, classically influenced arpeggios. This is music as Technicolor, vividly exploding from the mind of modern metal's Frank Zappa.
Wikipedia informations
Ziltoid the Omniscient is the ninth studio album by the Canadian metal musician Devin Townsend, released on his own label HevyDevy Records in May 2007 and distributed in America and Europe by InsideOut Music.
The album is a fictional concept album about an extraterrestrial being named Ziltoid from the planet Ziltoidia 9. Ziltoid travels to Earth in search for "the ultimate cup of coffee". Townsend describes the album as a mix between Strapping Young Lad and the The Devin Townsend Band, with a storyline like that of Punky Brüster's Cooked on Phonics.
The album is a solo album, with all music written, mixed, produced and performed by Townsend. All drum tracks were recorded with Drumkit from Hell, a software drum machine.
Background
Townsend's wife, Tracy Turner, gave birth to their first son, Reyner Liam Johnstan Townsend, on October 4, 2006. Around this time, Townsend withdrew from touring with his extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and his progressive metal group the The Devin Townsend Band, explaining that he was burnt out on touring and interviewing. Townsend released an ambient album, The Hummer, around this time.
Townsend then began work on his next solo album, Ziltoid the Omniscient. "And I really mean solo, in the true sense of the word," explained Townsend. "Nobody was around. For four months I worked completely on my own. I recorded each instrumental track and I also programmed all the drums. … I was sound engineer and producer and I mixed every note in my cellar with a minimum of gear. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it all on my own." Townsend programmed the drums using Drumkit from Hell, a software drum machine provided to him by Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah.
Track listing
1. "ZTO" – 1:17
2. "By Your Command" – 8:09
3. "Ziltoidia Attaxx!!!" – 3:42
4. "Solar Winds" – 9:46
5. "Hyperdrive" – 3:47
6. "N9" – 5:30
7. "Planet Smasher" – 5:45
8. "Omnidimensional Creator" – 0:48
9. "Color Your World" – 9:44
10. "The Greys" – 4:15
11. "Tall Latte" – 1:03
Special edition bonus disc
1. "Don't Know Why" – 7:34
2. "Travelling Salesman" – 2:14
3. "Untitled" – 4:32
Credits
UE Nastasi - Mastering
Marcus Rogers - Photography
Devin Townsend - Programming, Producer, Engineer, Mixing, Creation, Sculpture
Dave Young Orchestra - Engineer
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