This song really grew on me and has become my favorite of Devin Townsend.
Just the moods of this song tell a story of their own: The first part has this "It's all so unfair and meaningless!" kind of vibe, but slowly starts to build up to pure anger and feeling superior. Just by listening to the "I don't give a shit" part I can really see a person screaming the lines with their head held high, feeling superior to everyone.
But very subtle, this anger turns more and more into desperation and the realization how fake this "strength" actually is. It really amazes me how this change is happening in such a short amount of time until the "far far far away" line part is starting. That part can really only be described as "eargasm", I get a shiver down my spine everytime I listen to it. The voices, the rhythm, the very subtle guitar solo accompanying it (it's so fitting that it isn't the dominant instrument in this part) - it's like each instrument represents thoughts that overlap into some sort of sad chaos. Really the most powerful part to me.
When the arpeggios start we finally see how weak and "soft" Ziltoid actually is. Any aggression is completely gone. The moment the song is getting a bit more aggressive again is from the perspective of the Omnidimensional Creator who finally tells him the hard truth, so it seems to me that Ziltoid is completely broken at this point (note that "The Greys" is also one of the softer songs).
I can imagine that this is somehow connected to Devin's career as a musician, hence the references to older songs, as other users already noticed here. But I don't like assuming things about the composers of songs since music isn't always personal, so I won't go any more into that.
Putting aside the story about Ziltoid on this album, this song can reflect almost every person who's having some kind of low point in their life. You feel that everything is unfair in this world, and after a while you get so sick of it that you turn that feeling into anger. "Maybe everything is unfair, but I will be strong and defy it anyway!". At some point, however, this shell completely breaks apart and you fall even deeper than where you've been before, feeling completely weak and vulnerable. But this marks the point where you start to see what you really want in life.
The "you are a puppet" line, while it seems to be about aliens in the Ziltoid-Story, could easily be seen as "human nature" in that context. No matter who you are, in the end you have the same desires as everyone else. You are not special, you are not superior, you don't stand above it.
The best example would be someone who was cheated on and lost their partner because of it. Although I haven't experienced it myself, I can imagine people going through the exact same stages as described before. But in the end, they need to open their heart for other people again.
This song really grew on me and has become my favorite of Devin Townsend.
Just the moods of this song tell a story of their own: The first part has this "It's all so unfair and meaningless!" kind of vibe, but slowly starts to build up to pure anger and feeling superior. Just by listening to the "I don't give a shit" part I can really see a person screaming the lines with their head held high, feeling superior to everyone. But very subtle, this anger turns more and more into desperation and the realization how fake this "strength" actually is. It really amazes me how this change is happening in such a short amount of time until the "far far far away" line part is starting. That part can really only be described as "eargasm", I get a shiver down my spine everytime I listen to it. The voices, the rhythm, the very subtle guitar solo accompanying it (it's so fitting that it isn't the dominant instrument in this part) - it's like each instrument represents thoughts that overlap into some sort of sad chaos. Really the most powerful part to me. When the arpeggios start we finally see how weak and "soft" Ziltoid actually is. Any aggression is completely gone. The moment the song is getting a bit more aggressive again is from the perspective of the Omnidimensional Creator who finally tells him the hard truth, so it seems to me that Ziltoid is completely broken at this point (note that "The Greys" is also one of the softer songs).
I can imagine that this is somehow connected to Devin's career as a musician, hence the references to older songs, as other users already noticed here. But I don't like assuming things about the composers of songs since music isn't always personal, so I won't go any more into that.
Putting aside the story about Ziltoid on this album, this song can reflect almost every person who's having some kind of low point in their life. You feel that everything is unfair in this world, and after a while you get so sick of it that you turn that feeling into anger. "Maybe everything is unfair, but I will be strong and defy it anyway!". At some point, however, this shell completely breaks apart and you fall even deeper than where you've been before, feeling completely weak and vulnerable. But this marks the point where you start to see what you really want in life.
The "you are a puppet" line, while it seems to be about aliens in the Ziltoid-Story, could easily be seen as "human nature" in that context. No matter who you are, in the end you have the same desires as everyone else. You are not special, you are not superior, you don't stand above it. The best example would be someone who was cheated on and lost their partner because of it. Although I haven't experienced it myself, I can imagine people going through the exact same stages as described before. But in the end, they need to open their heart for other people again.