ZILTOID THE OMNISCIENT

Do you know what subjugation means? Ziltoid apparently does, but I don't. Apparently some 'deep-filosophical' term thought by the omniscient Ziltoid. Stupid me didn't even know the meaning of 'omniscient'. What I do know is that this album is awfully funny and that Devin has been extremely creative making it.

Funny isn't the only thing 'ZTO' is. It has many great thrilling prog-metal songs on it, that are catchy, but at the same time need quite a few listens to make them digest properly. In typical context this music wouldn't of course work so fabulously, but as the album 'doesn't let you take it very seriously' the musical experience here can be taken 'easily', making it an exciting experience in a relaxed way and I for one enjoy it very darn much. There is sheer beauty and crushing power here, and most of it is expressed in some kind of naive, but very pleasant way. Space-rock type of mellower, quite beautiful songs progress into heavy-melodic enthrallingly-structured tunes. And the story! The story-line is truly marvellous, with much a lot of mockery and very funny stuff.

Inside the booklet, we can read, that the idea of Ziltoid was 'conceived' by Devin at about the age of 8. This probably makes the story have a warm 'childish' 'feel' to it, that I recognize listening to 'ZTO'. The naive, warm, maybe nostalgic sense about the story adds value to the album quite much in my eyes. The main or most easily comprehended aspect of the narrative is that it is a parody to concept-albums, but there is a few more sides to it I feel. Aside from mocking 'deep' conceptual albums, this album has a real, if not deep, then at least acceptable and enjoyable, maybe even enlightening concept in it, but I won't explain it any more, if you're interested, better find out what I'm talking about for youselves.

In a few words, I feel the story isn't just plain mockery and funny stuff, there is real 'feeling' and thought in it. It's the same with the music as well. The music isn't serious, it isn't just for fun and it's prog as a really prog thing. For me, this album has many layers and besides the wonderful musical experience, it gives me a sense of joy in other ways as well.

As far as I'm concerned, a masterpiece.

On a (quite meaningless) scale of five stars, I would rate it 4,7. And that's a really good rating.

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