I'm Scottish so I get Ki.

*kidding*

You Scots do have a ridiculously large strange word vocabularies.

What do you expect?

They have to come up with whole new words for "deep fried Mars Bars"

(It's ok my father is Scottish...he says it)

I'm Scottish so I get Ki.

*kidding*

You Scots do have a ridiculously large strange word vocabularies.

haw eh'll chib ye fur that!

I love being Scottish, and our crazy moon language. I reckon the Canadians stole "aboot" from us too! We'd reclaim it, but it's difficult to organise and do anything as a nation when you're perpetually drunk or on the scag.

Another example of me talking shit.

Maybe just sour grapes on my part, more than likely, sorry to anyone offended.

Nah not at all. Most of England is totally tasteless with it's music.

I'm perhaps kidding there. Being on a course which has your most 'normal' and 'average' people, I don't hold much hope...

Oh, and that stupid Eurovision entry we had with the Plane people. Whoever voted to choose that to represent us?

Another example of me talking shit.

Maybe just sour grapes on my part, more than likely, sorry to anyone offended.

Nah not at all. Most of England is totally tasteless with it's music.

I'm perhaps kidding there. Being on a course which has your most 'normal' and 'average' people, I don't hold much hope...

Oh, and that stupid Eurovision entry we had with the Plane people. Whoever voted to choose that to represent us?

I think the plane people were the worst of a bad bunch. Didn't we have Jordan as the other option?
Anyways, thats not the best representation of British music. Get Napalm Death next year.

Another example of me talking shit.

Maybe just sour grapes on my part, more than likely, sorry to anyone offended.

Nah not at all. Most of England is totally tasteless with it's music.

I'm perhaps kidding there. Being on a course which has your most 'normal' and 'average' people, I don't hold much hope...

Oh, and that stupid Eurovision entry we had with the Plane people. Whoever voted to choose that to represent us?

I think the plane people were the worst of a bad bunch. Didn't we have Jordan as the other option?
Anyways, thats not the best representation of British music. Get Napalm Death next year.

Yeah, Jordan was the other entry I believe.

We need someone, you know, good for the Eurovision. The person we had this year wasn't so bad, she was just a bit... Dull. I'd love to entry for giggles.

Yeah, Eurovision should have Wintersun from Finland, Porcupine Tree from England, Opeth from Sweden, Emperor from Norway and Disillusion from Germany.

None of it is going to happen though.

Rammstein reunion for the Eurovision Win!

Some mates of mine have a Gaelic Doom band called Mael Mordha that auditioned for the Irish entry a few years back. 2 of the 3 judges were having none of it.
The boys even offered to learn some Abba songs (Gaelic Doom style of course).

I believe that may have been the year we elected to have a puppet-turkey as our entrant instead. I could be wrong though, I've not paid much attention to be honest. Except when Lordi won. But I had money riding on that.

Yeah, Eurovision should have Wintersun from Finland, Porcupine Tree from England, Opeth from Sweden, Emperor from Norway and Disillusion from Germany.

None of it is going to happen though.

WINTERSUN WOULD WIN >8(

at least get my vote

Out of those, opeth probably woudlve won, even though i really dont get opeth myself, i find more people liking that, than Wintersun, feks

Edit; Oh, and Gojira from France

WINTERSUN WOULD WIN >8(

at least get my vote

Out of those, opeth probably woudlve won, even though i really dont get opeth myself, i find more people liking that, than Wintersun, feks

Opeth is propably more popular, cause they've been around for longer and have released 9 times as many albums as Wintersun. I'm a big fan of both myself.

Edit; Oh, and Gojira from France

Definitely!

What else could we have... Riverside from Poland, Aqua De Annique from Netherlands and Rhapsody of Fire from Italy (for the hell of it...)..... Um... Mew from Denmark... And I'm out of ideas.

http://heavymetal.about.com/od/interviews/a/devintownsend2009.htm

Haven't seen this one. Same boring topics, but the Ziltoid thing caught my attention, and I am not sure I agree with him...but I believe he was referring to the press.

Reading through some of that interview, I've got something to say.

Looking back at your career, are there any albums you’ve released that you believe are highly underrated?
Ziltoid is a killer record and people hate it. That’s cool because on the surface, many feel it’s a stupid story about an alien puppet that drinks coffee and its not even funny, but it’s not supposed to be funny. It’s supposed to be a metaphor on the public persona I had put out with Strapping Young Lad and how ultimately you’re putting that out there because you’re powerless in your own life to change anything, so you became a puppet of your own design. That record was, in my mind, one of the best things I’ve done, and people do not like it.

Well I absolutely love Ziltoid. Its one of my favourites, just behind OM and AE - but not because its an inferior album to those two.

To me it seems to encompass a turning point in Devin's music. It was a first after the indefinite hiatus of Strapping Young Lad. If you asked me, It feels like he kind of knew that he was about to or starting to go through some major changes in his life. That niggling feeling you have in the back of your head that tells you that what's going on in your life isn't quite right, but is yet to work its way to the tip of your tongue. A kind of subconscious realisation that "hell, this isn't working". It was a familiar yet somewhat explorative counterpoint to the perceived stagnation that had ultimately burnt out SYL. To me its a kind of a metaphorical street sign to say "my own stuff is now going down a different route and you're gonna hear it".

Just as in personal parts of his life, I also feel Devin Townsend has a somewhat bi-polar approach to his music. Its multi-layered in its production, but also in its meaning. Its up for debate but has a concise message wrapped up in the layers of sound, ethereal swells - like something truly alive, peaceful and chaotic in nature. He seems to enjoy making music beyond anything else, then find the whole subject of music totally unendearing and draining. Its like a marriage.

ZTO has this first glance of a comedic living room project with pro-tools and a few effects pedals - then you read into something deeper - a kind of sombre, pained and personal expression that floats just beneath the surface. Then - just as you start feeling your heart sink, a bit of humour pops up. Its like someone saying "Yeah I'm not okay, but screw it, you still gotta laugh."

With moments like Solar Winds, Hyperdrive and The Greys, hear that sincerity, and that camp hilarity in ZTO, By Your Command and Tall Latte. It has chunky riffs, sweeping choruses and those trademark bubbly arpeggios. Its a last gasp moment of familiarity before a period of quiet - and ultimately change.

So you ask yourself - is this guy reading into this a bit much? Well yeah, I guess, but I something niggles me in human behaviour, epitomised in this record, that makes me think these aren't just coincidences you are hearing between albums. Like any fine architect or craftsman, everything is there for a reason.

As for the mixing, it does sound synthetic, but I feel like that suits the topic matter. Its about space, its about a puppet and a story inside a coffee-shop assistants head. It still sounds good. It reminds me of a soundtrack to a children's story of a lost astronaut on a journey. It could quite easily fit a Pixar film - and has that innocent and simplistic sincerity that children's books have.

I hope that's a respectable personal interpretation to an amazing album.

Reading through some of that interview, I've got something to say.

Looking back at your career, are there any albums you’ve released that you believe are highly underrated?
Ziltoid is a killer record and people hate it. That’s cool because on the surface, many feel it’s a stupid story about an alien puppet that drinks coffee and its not even funny, but it’s not supposed to be funny. It’s supposed to be a metaphor on the public persona I had put out with Strapping Young Lad and how ultimately you’re putting that out there because you’re powerless in your own life to change anything, so you became a puppet of your own design. That record was, in my mind, one of the best things I’ve done, and people do not like it.

Well I absolutely love Ziltoid. Its one of my favourites, just behind OM and AE - but not because its an inferior album to those two.

To me it seems to encompass a turning point in Devin's music. It was a first after the indefinite hiatus of Strapping Young Lad. If you asked me, It feels like he kind of knew that he was about to or starting to go through some major changes in his life. That niggling feeling you have in the back of your head that tells you that what's going on in your life isn't quite right, but is yet to work its way to the tip of your tongue. A kind of subconscious realisation that "hell, this isn't working". It was a familiar yet somewhat explorative counterpoint to the perceived stagnation that had ultimately burnt out SYL. To me its a kind of a metaphorical street sign to say "my own stuff is now going down a different route and you're gonna hear it".

Just as in personal parts of his life, I also feel Devin Townsend has a somewhat bi-polar approach to his music. Its multi-layered in its production, but also in its meaning. Its up for debate but has a concise message wrapped up in the layers of sound, ethereal swells - like something truly alive, peaceful and chaotic in nature. He seems to enjoy making music beyond anything else, then find the whole subject of music totally unendearing and draining. Its like a marriage.

ZTO has this first glance of a comedic living room project with pro-tools and a few effects pedals - then you read into something deeper - a kind of sombre, pained and personal expression that floats just beneath the surface. Then - just as you start feeling your heart sink, a bit of humour pops up. Its like someone saying "Yeah I'm not okay, but screw it, you still gotta laugh."

With moments like Solar Winds, Hyperdrive and The Greys, hear that sincerity, and that camp hilarity in ZTO, By Your Command and Tall Latte. It has chunky riffs, sweeping choruses and those trademark bubbly arpeggios. Its a last gasp moment of familiarity before a period of quiet - and ultimately change.

So you ask yourself - is this guy reading into this a bit much? Well yeah, I guess, but I something niggles me in human behaviour, epitomised in this record, that makes me think these aren't just coincidences you are hearing between albums. Like any fine architect or craftsman, everything is there for a reason.

As for the mixing, it does sound synthetic, but I feel like that suits the topic matter. Its about space, its about a puppet and a story inside a coffee-shop assistants head. It still sounds good. It reminds me of a soundtrack to a children's story of a lost astronaut on a journey. It could quite easily fit a Pixar film - and has that innocent and simplistic sincerity that children's books have.

I hope that's a respectable personal interpretation to an amazing album.

Thanx for that Nevaeh, great read....

You hit on every point that I believe about this album. I can relate to it immensely, maybe more so than ANY of his albums only because I too have a living room project, but with Sonar and rackmount units LOL. Sometimes I think doing music this way is really therapeutic and cathartic, and NECESSARY at least for someone like me. Playing with other musicians is always a blast, and I still do....but I need to hole up with my gear and obsessively record sometimes....it may not seem too healthy, but I think it is like a weird reverse meditation technique. It helps me sort out my thoughts. I feel bad for the people that don't get it, because Ziltoid may be the most honest album he has ever done. All you have to do is be intelligent enough to read through the metaphors...

Very good read, I agree as well.
I didn't know that Townsend thinks people hate it so much. Maybe it's just too awesome, that it goes over most peoples' heads that's what I think. It seems that the deeper meaning behind Ziltoid is either overlooked or unnoticed by some. And maybe that's why some don't like it as much. I don't know... but there's more to the album than what meets the ear. And hate is a pretty strong word, I can't imagine Townsend fans 'hating' it. I personally think it's brilliant, and I listen to it all the time!

Ziltoid got me into Devin Townsend. Freaking awesome.

I'd actually rate Ziltoid higher than any of albums in The Devin Townsend Band era. No disrespect to the DTB or those albums, because they're all amazing albums and I can't fault them. It's just that Ziltoid has a quality that I can't put my finger on, something that was present in Devin's earlier work but seemed to disappear in later albums.