I'd only ever heard a few things by Devin Townsend in the past and had usually been a bit negative towards those listens, largely because I couldn't get into his production style. I chose the Devin Townsend album quite simply because I liked the cover and found out it was a concept album (even though most concepts don't usually cut it for me)
I found the concept here interesting, the vocals strong, the guitars loud, with some surprising melodies and yes I found the production here really great as well. After just a few songs I knew I was going to like the material on offer here a lot as well. The album is a great and heavy rock opera and that's just how it should be from a metal artist and I once read not too long ago that Devin Townsend is seen as a metal version of Frank Zappa and I can only think that comes from the comedy element in his music (we're talking sophisticated comedy here of course) Ziltoid is probably one of the best unheard of albums by me that I've heard in a while and it certainly has me now looking to explore the rest of Devin Townsend's material in a lot more detail.
4.5/5