Devin Townsend
Ziltoid, The Omniscient

Yes, ladies and gentlemen of the court, I confess. I confess that when I read that he was recording an album entirely by himself to create a puppet show about an alien who uses coffee as fuel for a four-dimensional spaceship... well, yes, I thought, I admit it, I really thought that Devin Townsend had really gone off the deep end this time, that he'd just taken a one-way ticket to insanity.
And who wouldn't have thought that, for heaven's sake, knowing the guy, after all, he already suffered from manic-depressive psychosis, or bipolar disorder, or whatever it is.
The fact that he was recording it completely alone, in his studio, when after the release of "The New Black" with his apocalyptic Strapping Young Lad he had expressed a desire for a break (and after all, in the same year he released "Synchestra")... all of this certainly didn’t leave room for many diagnoses.

But let's get to the point. I'm guilty, ladies and gentlemen of the court.
Hevy-Devy had left us feeling a bit unsatisfied, with a "Synchestra" that was somewhat a summation of the Devin Townsend Band, with brilliant highs as well as low moments; and with "The New Black" which somewhat mimicked what were the apocalyptic SYL of chaos-industrial metal. In short, even Devin ages and seems to reach stability in his personality disorder. And this "Ziltoid The Omniscient" is proof of that.

Excellent cohesion between the DTband and the SYL, it's a solid album, without any particular highs (perhaps a "Hyperdrive"), but certainly without any lows. Devin fully exploits his vocal eclecticism, the drum machine used is well-balanced, without falling into the impossible or the clichéd, to create a tapestry of songs that may not be epic but certainly aren’t 53 minutes wasted.
Don’t expect any major innovations, it's not another "Terria," and the more attentive listeners will notice more than a few literal citations from Townsend's previous works (both on the DTBand side, and regarding the SYL side). Ziltoid’s story is well-seasoned with a grotesque but not heavy humor, though I remain curious about the puppet show.
I'm guilty, ladies and gentlemen of the court, but at least allow me a multidimensional coffee.

http://www.myspace.com/ziltoidtheomniscient

In the end, never doubt a madman, he is the most reliable person ever.