When I actually compare it to other albums, it lacks the kind of emotional maturity and absolute intensity albums like Terria, Synchestra, Ocean Machine and Infinity have.

That's exactly how I feel.

Lest we forget "it was a concept from when I was 9 years old"?


It's supposed to be the comic book of novels. So fucking what? What better way to tap into old ideas with modern skills and still know that people will buy it and enjoy it? Even if to only prove something to himself?

"Hyperdrive", "Solar Winds", and "The Greys" all have stuck with me. Granted, they are the most similar to my electric-rhythm style, but this album was obviously not meant to draw fans into some sophisticated corner of the grey matter. Fuckin' turn it up and have a good time.

I love it and I have loved it since day one. It recieced a lot of hate it seems
but I can listen to it again and again. By Your Comand alone I could listen to
for days without ever getting tired of it. It's heavy, it's beautiful and it's fun.
I've always loved cheesy stuff when it's done right and this is cheese done right!

"If there was to be two omniscients' I would be both!"

"I'm Ziltoid! I don't give a shit! I live above earth in a big rocket ship!"

Love it!

I really need to listen to it again. I never gave it much of a chance.

Occasionally for my amusement when I go into the coffee shop near my office, I ask for a long, complicated drink in that pompous voice from Tall Latte, such as an ultra-sized weak decaf sugar free hazelnut cappuccino; immediately I'll assure them I'm kidding and order something more banal (like a long black, or a tall latte ).

Ziltoid was the first Devin album I ever heard and I immediately loved it. I still love it. Is it my favourite? Absolutely not. Do I recommend it to people? All the time.

I'm honestly surprised that this album isn't more loved by more people.
Maybe it's the fake drums, or the conversation between songs, but a lot of the songs on this album are fucking amazing.
Colour Your World is still in my top 20 songs, no doubt (I have a VERY tight top 20).
A few of the other songs could sneak in there too... Planet Smasher has a fucking beautiful, heavy, amazing hook that is surrounded by a fun song.
N9 is brilliant... The "drumming" is amazing. Watching RVP pull it off flawlessly live is even cooler than hearing it on the album.

I've also realised more recently, that having ziltoid as a shameless outlet for anything awesomely heavy and (on the surface) silly for Townsend is brilliant, and it's only going to be a source of more amazing music to come.

I can understand why someone who doesn't pay attention to Townsend as a person would dismiss this as a joke album... But to this day, I play it at least once every couple of weeks. Love it.

I love Ziltoid.
No one here (in the pathetic town where I live) knows who Devin Townsend is. One particularly rough night at work (I work nights in a hospital) I made the Ziltoid album cover the wallpaper on every computer in the ICU. Cheered me up considerably, and my co-workers were intrigued and put into good humor as well (had to erase it by morning, of course). Now several people I work with express interest in Devin's music. And that rather crazy-looking, coffee-drinking, pontificating creature has become a bit of a mascot for this night-shift ICU nurse (I look a lot like him at the end of the night).
I generally listen to Ziltoid in its entirety, usually when I am creating an elaborate, complicated meal in the kitchen. And I sing to it, loudly.

I love Ziltoid.
No one here (in the pathetic town where I live) knows who Devin Townsend is. One particularly rough night at work (I work nights in a hospital) I made the Ziltoid album cover the wallpaper on every computer in the ICU. Cheered me up considerably, and my co-workers were intrigued and put into good humor as well (had to erase it by morning, of course). Now several people I work with express interest in Devin's music. And that rather crazy-looking, coffee-drinking, pontificating creature has become a bit of a mascot for this night-shift ICU nurse (I look a lot like him at the end of the night).
I generally listen to Ziltoid in its entirety, usually when I am creating an elaborate, complicated meal in the kitchen. And I sing to it, loudly.

This could be good wallpaper:

This could be good wallpaper:

I love that!

And I sing to it, loudly.

+ 1!

(And skrimpy, thanks for your supportive words! Made my day!)

Ziltoid is just the album that makes me happy and sad at the same time.
Like Dev said, it's not as happy and lightweight as people hear/feel it, and I get that on some unexplainable level.

But then again I hear the soft and warming Hyperdrive, and it drifts me back to enjoy the sound world and all the charming melodies. I guess I am not as priviledged as some with their gifts to see and hear the untold.

Sounds like you are overthinking things and can't tolerate the good with the bad emotions. That is all part of the whole DT bi-polar paradox. Track like "The Greys" is one of my favs, even though it's far from upbeat. It is more ghostly on a vastly epic scale. But you can't listen to the stuff and attach too much emotional value to it or whatever and let it drive you nuts, it's just music to me. And if we are playing by the rules of modern society... who is to decide what sounds sad or happy anyway.

We control our emotions, they don't control us. With that in mind anyone is able to hear and understand more of his music with practice.

No such thing as overthinking it. You can look as deep into it as you want. Simply recognizing the good & bad emotions doesn't mean you can't tolerate it, it means you look beyond the surface level f the music, to try to understand where it comes from.


Then again, nothing wrong with not going that deep into it, either. If that's what floats your boat, fine. It's just music to us as well.


On topic: I love all Devy's albums, but imo this is where he just took it to another level. This was the first Devy album to really "click" for me. Also helped me to comprehend the concept of an album as opposed to a collection of songs. I love how the album starts out as a wacky concept album about aliens U& coffee, then morphs into one oft the deepest musical experiences I've ever heard

Extremely well. Much better now that Ki and Addicted have been released, which seem to have given it a context that's allowed me to connect with it in a way I didn't at first.

In fact, I think I'd rate it second only to Terria now (both albums took me a while to really appreciate...)

When it first came out I didn't quite know what to make of it... a bizarre mix of aggression, wistfulness and humour and really not that many obvious hooks. Plus, the focus on the Ziltoid puppet during the promotional phase probably ended up being a distraction and produced a misconceived expectation as to what the material was going to be like... for me, at least.

These days I (rightly or wrongly) see ZTO as Devin metaphorically shedding the baggage of SYL, allowing him to make peace with how he'd ended up presenting himself over the years leading up to SYL's final curtain and thus clear the decks ready for the next phase of his musical journey.

I love it. It's absolutely a great album to enjoy while getting all psychelelic in the brain, if that's at all your cup of tea. Even minus that, it's a crazy fun album for any situation Some buddies and I have some fond memories with this album as the soundtrack to them.

Still one of the greatest forces in the Universe...
Color your World/The Greys cut me to my core in a quite beautiful way.

You know, in preparation for Deconstruction and Ghost I've been going back through Dev's albums and listening to them, and I just listened to Ziltoid yesterday and haven't stopped listening to it since. I've always liked the album and never understood all the hate it got from a lot of areas but I guess I never fully "got" it. Yesterday, though, it just clicked. I can't really explain it, but the album in its entirety is mindblowing in its depth. When I first heard the album, my favorite track was Ziltoidia Ataxxx, probably since I was big into SYL at the time, but now Solar Winds just jumped out to me. Digging it. Anyway, I think the album just gets better and better as time goes on. And I can't wait for Z2, the original was just screaming for an orchestra so can't wait to hear how Z2 comes out with one.