Ziltoid the Omniscient

Some of you may be familiar with Devin Townsend. He's a Canadian metal musician that works with a number of different bands, (Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend Band, Lamb of God, Zimmer's Hole, and others) and also produces solo material.

I recently got a copy of his latest solo album, "Ziltoid the Omniscient", and I'm loving it. I guess you could say it's a pretty niche genre, because it's halfway serious progressive metal, and it's halfway a comic metal opera.

"Ziltoid the Omniscient" is about a 4th dimensional alien named Ziltoid (who, as you might have guessed, is omniscient). Ziltoid comes to earth and demands earth's "finest cup of coffee" within 5 minutes. Earth presents him with what he considers to be an inferior cup of coffee, and he attacks the planet. In between, there's a 6th dimensional being known as the "planet smasher", references to a place called the benevolent hive-mind 9, the crowning of the ultimate 4th-dimensional guitar hero, and of course the leader of the human resistance, "Captain Spectacular". (Come to think of it...in several ways the Ziltoid album bears more than passing resemblance to Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog)

If all of that sounds pretty silly, well, it pretty much is. The music all the way through is fantastic, and Devin manages to pull it off and keep it silly...but not stupid. There's a real difference - this is music that can laugh at itself and be fun, but it doesn't come off as dopey to me. My only criticism of the album is the drumming. The one instrument Devin appears not to play is the drum kit, and he used programmed drums throughout the album. As metal drumming goes, it's OK, but unimpressive when compared to what Devin's frequent band mate Gene "The Atomic Clock" Hoglan can do.

If you're looking for something way off the beaten track in music, try Ziltoid the Omniscient. Particularly the tracks "Color your world", "The Greys", and "By Your Command". It's a version of progressive metal that doesn't fall victim to all the cock-rock BS that you sometimes find in metal.