Metal | Dunwich Reviews

When Z2 was revealed to be a double album I was curious to see what could be put alongside the anticipated second Ziltoid disc. According to Devin, the theme of the entire double album is “Ziltoid against the world”, but does Z2: Sky Blue really feel like an opponent to Dark Matters or a welcomed companion to calm to storm?

Upon first listen, I could immediately tell that this is the album that comes after 2012’s Epicloud. Right out of the gates, Rejoice has me headbanging like an idiot with its heavy chugging-on-C riff. The version of Fallout on the media release has Devin singing the verses, which I think are some of his most powerful vocal lines to date. Apparently on the general release Anneke belts out these parts. Mightnight Sun sounds like a modern Storm from Accelerated Evolution, and Universal Flame has the poppy keys and melodies of a new Bend It Like Bender with a rock guitar solo(rare as far as Dev goes)!

There is a lot of variation to the songs on this album, which I think is great. Did Devin write a song more radio-friendly/more poppy than Bender this time around? Yes he did! It’s the title track Sky Blue, and it’s more than welcomed on this album. Want to shake your ass for a bit? Ryan Van Poederooyen must have been while recording the drums on Silent Militia, one of my favourites on Sky Blue. And then things get more serious…

Rain City is a beautiful, dark, soundscape-driven song and is the longest on the entire double album. The vocal duet between Devin and Anneke is chilling on top of a wash of guitars that resemble rain. Though a little longer than necessary, this track is a pivotal point on the first disc. The airiness and quiet nature of the verses to Before We Die make you feel like you’re floating through the clouds. The Universal Choir makes an appearance in the chorus as well.

To me, Sky Blue feels like a nice common ground between Addicted and Epicloud, with some early Devin Townsend Band influence intended to kick you in the balls. Having listened to both Dark Matters and Sky Blue numerous times over the past while, I can honestly say that Sky Blue will probably get more spins in the future. But don’t get me wrong, both are excellent albums with different merits. Sky Blue’s stand-alone songs make it easy to just drop the needle anywhere and listen, while Dark Matters feels like it should be played top to bottom every time, which can be taxing. I’m sure the disc without dialogue enables a more casual listen, though.

I think the music here is completely worthy of its hype and will be a blast to hear live.

5/5

Thanks to Jon Pebsworth at Century Media and Jasper Shuurmans at Northern Music Co. for the chance to review this album.

North American Pre-Order: http://www.cmdistro.com/Artist/Devin_Townsend/10266

or http://www.jsrdirect.com/bands/devintownsendproject

European Pre-Order: https://www.bandstores.co.uk/shop/devintownsend/

Earth—one of the many places with life in Devin Townsend’s Ziltoidian Universe—contains a most precious commodity, COFFEE. As we’ve learned in ZTV Episode 1, this rare substance, unbeknownst to the fetid humans, will allow Ziltoidians to bend SPACE AND TIME. Indeeeed!

In the 2006 album Ziltoid the Omniscient(ZTO), we meet Ziltoid, an alien with major insecurities and the desire to take over Earth. We also meet Captain Spectacular, Earth’s lead commander, who defends the planet from the attack. After a series of events, Ziltoid is told by the Omnidimensional Creator that he is just a puppet, and we learn that the entire story was in the imagination of a coffee barista. Until….

Three years later Hevy Devy announced plans to produce a full blown Z2 musical with orchestra and choir. And the skullet? It was in a box waiting for the day it could be affixed to the mighty alien’s head. In 2012, Devin Townsend teased that he “may have written the heaviest thing [he’s] ever done”. And just two years after that, Ziltoid is back! And bigger than ever!

Presented in the style of an old radio play, Z2: Dark Matters packs the complexity of Deconstruction, the insanity of Alien, and the humour of Dev’s entire catalogue. Lush orchestration and an immense choir (and even the separate universal choir of about 1500 nerds, including myself) complement the scorching guitars and incredible drumming. This album packs a punch that’ll send you to Titan.

While I don’t want to reveal too much of the story, it appears that the attack on the first album was all a dream, and now Ziltoid is planning to befriend the puny Earthlings in an attempt to colonize their planet and gain control of all of the coffee to rule the universe. The twists and turns that follow keep you on the edge of your seat!

The time and effort that went into this album is evident throughout. Ziltoid Goes Home’s intricacy and Deathray’s headbanging choruses would have easily fit on Strapping Young Lad’s The New Black. Wandering Eyes would feel at home on Inifinity, and some of the riffs on Earth could have been released on Synchestra. Wandering Eye runs off of a weird shifting time signature that works well, but as a whole would have been turned sounded better a full song rather than a device to progress plot. On the plus side of things, the tapping guitar riff with Devin singing on top in Dimension Z is one of my favourite parts of the album.

The voice acting is top-notch and hammy as you would expect! It is great to hear a variation in the voices of the characters (on ZTO, Devin did all of the voices) as Chris Jericho plays Captain Spectacular and Dominique Lenore Persi plays the War Princess.

Throughout the album there are times when the story and the music clash a bit, and the story can be harder to follow than ZTO was. I would have liked to hear the lead vocals and band up a bit louder than the choir and orchestra. Earth, for example, would benefit from having more solid vocal melodies, rather than being a bit suffocated by the choir.

Clearly this album (along with Sky Blue, for which a review is on its way) is a defining moment of Devin’s career. If the recent crowd-funded project Casualties of Cool(from which excess funds were used for Z2) is any indication, our main man has an incredibly supportive and ever-growing fanbase that can laugh at a fart and boobies now and then. Z2: Dark Matters will be talked about throughout the ages as a genre-bending, sci-fi extravaganza that only other albums from Dev’s catalog parallel. It’s hard not to sing along with tasty vocal melodies of Dimension Z.

This double album will be released October 28 in Canada/USA, and October 27 in Europe. For fans of the music that may find the dialogue distracting, the three disc editions contains a version of Dark Matters without dialogue. I personally think both versions will have their merits given the listening environment. So go pre-order this now! Then when it arrives, sit back with a strong coffee—BLACK—and immerse yourself for the duration without distraction. Truly appreciate what I consider to be a masterpiece.

4.5/5

Thanks to Jon Pebsworth at Century Media and Jasper Shuurmans at Northern Music Co. for the chance to review this album.

Visit www.ziltoid.com for more insanity and ZTV episodes leading up the the release of the album!

Deathray Lyric Video