Devin Townsend - Ziltoid Live At The Royal Albert Hall
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
Written by Alec Chillingworth
Unless you’re Rammstein, releasing a live DVD in 2015 is a bit of a rubbish idea. Why would kids buy the box set when they can plug a USB stick into their frontal lobe and stream the fucker while they’re playing Candy Crush, Snapchatting photos of ready meals and sending poo emojis all at the same time?
Devin Townsend doesn’t have to worry about all that, though. His concert films are brilliant. The last one had a giant alien vagina in it. ‘Ziltoid Live At The Royal Albert Hall’ shakes things up again to include a couple of farting, walking, mumbling bollockbags.
Townsends’s stint at the Royal Albert begins with the ‘Dark Matters’ half of last year’s ‘Z2’ opus. Nobody was frothing over that section of the album upon release – mate, it was all about the ‘Sky Blue’ disc – but ‘Dark Matters’ grows its own tentacles in the live environment.
He keeps his trademark banter to a minimum, only occasionally screaming things like, “this is fucking epic!” before launching into yet another bout of spacey prog metal.
The aforementioned bollockbags – they’re called Poozers – run around in disarray, as Stolen Babies’ Dominique Lenore Persi provides some gritty guest vocals. Ziltoid Goes Home, meanwhile, delivers a scissor kick to the throat like it’s a Strapping Young Lad song.
Speaking of heaviness, Ryan Van Poederooyen is a beast behind the kit. He sprinkles unconventional hi-hat parts throughout March Of The Poozers and the band as a whole are tighter than a condom wrapped around a doorknob.
Townsends’s vocals are, unsurprisingly, god-like. It’s not the spectacular, sphincter-ripping follow-up to ‘The Retinal Circus’ that we were promised – there’s little in the way of stage show in comparison, playing out more like a glorified gig – but the story of Ziltoid is charming and the crowd devour everything they’re served.
The second half of the gig is where the goods are truly delivered, mind. A fan-centric setlist includes Earth Day, Heatwave and, amid other rarities, The Death Of Music. Aside from a warm-up gig prior to the Royal Albert Hall set, this one’s never been seen to live. Never. Watching Towsend trawl through the 10-minute opus, pain gripping his larynx and no guitar or silly gimmicks to fall back on, is glorious. It’s raw. It’s what fans have been after for years.
Then again, the DVD also includes whoopsies during Supercrush! and Lucky Animals, a circle pit – at the Royal Albert Hall! – through Kingdom and Devin’s young son, Reyner, getting all giddy as Universal Flame brings the night to a close. Urgh. Happiness.
It’s not ‘The Retinal Circus’. It’s not a career-spanning retrospective packed with guests, nor is it a ludicrous display of eye-humping lunacy. It’s Devin Townsend doing a heavy metal Punch and Judy show followed by a set of hidden gems, all at a venue he should never have been allowed near. ‘The Retinal Circus’ is a better starting point for newbies, but ‘Ziltoid Live At The Royal Albert Hall’ is nonetheless a three-hour labour of love and farts for the real fans.
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