Canadian vocalist/guitarist/producer DEVIN TOWNSEND has offered the following update from the studio, where he has several irons in the fire at once:

"Just finished writing track one for Z2 (Ziltoid 2). It's about a year and half away now... scary!"

Townsend spoke with Metal Army America during the summer of 2011 and commented on his now legendary alter ego, Ziltoid The Omniscient:

MAA: Will we ever see the Ziltoid character return again in some way, shape or form?

Townsend: "Ziltoid I think is rapidly becoming the mascot for what I do. It’s great for me on a number of levels I think. I love playing the character and it’s an extension of an exaggerated part of my personality that I think I felt self-conscious of doing before I quit doing certain lifestyle choices. But with Ziltoid its very creative and free. You know to be a fan of a human being is cool and everything. I know when I was younger there were certain people in bands I was really a fan of. And then as you get older you realize as you well know everybody is a human being and everybody is fallible. Everybody is an idiot trying to figure it all out. Everybody has their own hypothesis on what it is or what it isn’t, but ultimately none of us know. But everybody needs a hero too. I don’t want to be that hero, but I think that Ziltoid can be a very cool superhero because he’s from the fourth dimension and he’s a combination of backyard quantum physics and poop jokes. I think the combo of those two things for me is artistically full of potential (laughs)."

Click here for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Townsend has released official Ziltoid The Omniscient hand puppets. They are now available for purchase via a UK distributor here.