Back To The Start; Devin Townsend’s 10 Greatest Albums

Ziltoid The Omniscient (2007)

Source // jonathanhill.eu

Perhaps something of a commentary on the pantomime-villain that he felt Strapping Young Lad had turned him into, ZTO found Townsend at home, newly sober and once again contemplating his future in the music industry while looking after his young children.

If it is possible for a sci-fi comedy album about a smug, coffee obsessed alien overlord to stir up sentimentality about the human condition while pummelling you with Meshuggah-like dynamics, then this is it. ZTO features nary a duff cut, from the titular anti-hero’s campy reveal to the last swirling chords of “The Greys’”

Recorded at his home for a few hundred dollars, with a drum synth and a computer, this is Heavy Metal as art in the purest sense of the word. Genius, mad but genius!