After Deconstruction and Ghost , Townsend announced a new album , Casualties of Cool , with which he started to work after the release of Epicloud . The album features Ché Aimee Dorval ( from Ki ) on vocals and Morgan Ågren on drums . Townsend described the album sounds like  haunted Johnny Cash songs  and late night music  , highlighting it will be different than anything he has done before . Townsend referred the music of the album to be  closest to his heart  at this point of his life , and that it is an important and satisfying project he doesn 't want to rush . The album was completed on November 2013 , and a bonus disc was also made for the album , containing the leftover material from the main album as well as songs from Ghost 2 , the unreleased compilation of leftover tracks from Ghost . Originally in 2012 , Townsend stated that this album will be the sixth and the last album in the Devin Townsend Project series , but he ultimately confirmed that Casualties of Cool is its own project . Townsend also started a crowdfunding campaign through PledgeMusic to support the release of the album . The funding quickly reached its goal , and all additional funds were put directly to Townsend 's upcoming projects . Casualties of Cool was released on May 14 , 2014 . The album was re @-@ issued worldwide on January 15 , 2016 containing an additional DVD with live footage from the 2014 concert at the Union Chapel in London . From 2009 , Townsend worked on a long @-@ running album project called Z ² , a sequel to the album Ziltoid the Omniscient ( 2007 ) . Originally in 2012 , he teased he  may have just written the heaviest thing he 's ever done  for the album , and told there might a surprising lack of Ziltoid himself appearing on the album . However , in August 2013 , a London @-@ based radio station TeamRock Radio aired the first episode of Ziltoid Radio , a satirical radio show hosted solely by Ziltoid , this being one element of the Z ² project . Townsend also discussed a ZTV or  Ziltoid TV  is preceding the album . Later Townsend stated he has found the project hard to schedule and work with amidst touring and writing , stating it takes a lot of effort to keep the content with tongue @-@ in @-@ cheek humour entertaining . After writing ideas for over 70 songs , Townsend stated he is finally going to finish the whole project , followed by the announcement the album will be released on October 27 , 2014 . The recording process started in May 2014 , and the final project includes the album , a Ziltoid TV program and a live show , with a  big graphic novel comic  and a documentary . The album itself is a double album , with disc one being the main album and disc two featuring Devin Townsend Project material ; according to Townsend , the album 's theme is Ziltoid against the world. The Devin Townsend Project disc is called Sky Blue and the Ziltoid disc is called Dark Matters . After finishing the album , Townsend stated the project was punishing  and an absolute nightmare to complete  due to amount of material against tight schedules . He also described the hardship of the project by telling if he was ever going to start drinking [ again ] , the last months would have been it , but now  he 's starting to get excited again . Later , after the chaos of finishing it had subsided  , Townsend stated he is really satisfied with the result . Townsend recently discussed at least a year @-@ long hiatus , beginning after the Z ² show taking place at the Royal Albert Hall on April 13 , 2015 . During the indefinitely long break Townsend intends to  recharge his batteries  ,  get some inspiration and experiences  and to  see what the next chapter holds  for him . In 2014 , Devin recorded a ' poppy sounding ' song in Los Angeles with producer Brian Howes , but has decided against releasing . Devin mentioned he is against the project being contrived due to the current hard rock undertones in popular music . He described it as a  lukewarm heavy metal Devin song  . On December 11 , 2015 Townsend announced via Twitter that he was recording vocals for a song by Steve Vai . As of April 2016 , Devin is in the middle of recording the seventh DTP album , entitled Transcendence at Armoury Studios in Vancouver . fill in the blank  :   After Deconstruction and Ghost , Townsend announced a new album , Casualties of Cool , with which he started to work after the __________________ of Epicloud . 
Output:  release