The New Black (album)

*This article is about the album. For the title track, see The New Black (song)*

## ***The New Black***

### Genre

Extreme metal, industrial metal, thrash metal

### Producer

Devin Townsend

***The New Black*** is the fifth and final album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on July 11, 2006, debuting at No. 200 on the Billboard charts. A music video was shot for the album's sole single, "Wrong Side," and another video, done in CGI, was made for "Almost Again."

## Hevydevy.com description

> *Being the type of person who prides himself on 'finishing what he starts', it was important for me to conclude SYL in a way that a) made sense to the legacy of the vision, b) was aware enough of the pitfalls of 'Alien' and 'City' to avoid them emotionally, and c) was ok with the fans. We got offered the opportunity to do Ozzfest 2006 as well as Download and a few other higher profile gigs. I remember talking with the head of Century Media about the last record of our contract prior to those offers, and being afraid (yet again) to do it, but the Ozzfest thing in particular struck me as inspiring because I could use the fact that we were becoming 'popular' as a catalyst to make a statement about the irony of the whole thing. From 'Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing' selling nothing , and not being able to get arrested for years while fuming and spitting vitriol, as soon as the effects of that emotional drama ended up taking hold, we began to get visible. So I decided to make 'The New Black' lyrics almost a parody of the whole situation, and the irony of SYL doing the Ozzfest was fuel for a kind of 'commercial' SYL album that was disgusted by the success of something I had come to realize was toxic to me. The whole sense that by continuing to have these moral and existential crosses publicly, while self-destruction was an underline seemed sick and profoundly ugly. So lyrically, The New Black was all kind of sing along metal songs about 'the biggest band in the world' and the implications of what sort of vibrations you choose to throw into the environment, and how the come back to resonate with your world. The result was an odd, sort of eerie album that was sparse production (Mixed by Mike Fraser) and a very uneasy feel. A 'skin of the teeth' feeling that qualified for all the objectives I had originally planned for, plus gave us some good songs for Ozzfest (You Suck etc…) It was a tumultuous time internally as well… although I thought I had been clear with the band and label about this being the last album I ever did for SYL, I kind of think they thought I was just being overdramatic and was 'crying wolf' again. (understandable, as I was prone to that) When the label came and offered us a renewal of the contract and I reminded everybody that I was 'out', the shit kind of hit the fan. Byron had been playing with Fear Factory, and I think kind of threw his hands up about the whole deal. He had invested a ton of time and effort into managing the band with Mike and Jeff (Outerloop) and when it became clear that I was serious, everybody just kind of gave up. As a result, the Ozzfest was a rather horrible experience for us all, and the day of the last Ozzfest show, I shaved my 'beard' and left for good. I think it's a shame in the sense that when you get a bunch of people together, all working for their livelihood on music, they can't be expected to see the underlying drama that inherently came with the process for the main person with the original vision. By me making a decision that I knew was for the benefit of my mental health, I had to leave casualties behind and that was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make as a musician and person. The bottom line is that I remember being on stage at Download in 2006, (a great show…) and I looked out over the audience and remember thinking 'You can have this if you want… but your world will resonate with it forever' …and at that moment I knew I was done. It was dark at the time, and in order for me to continue, I would have to continually mine the vein that was unhealthy for me, so I made the decision to end it. It's been almost 7 years, and I don't regret my decision. However, the loss of relationship with those guys on some degree has been hard. On a side note: Gene absolutely played staggeringly well on this record and there are times when 'The New Black' is what I consider among my favourite SYL releases.*
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## Background

Century Media imposed a strict deadline on the release date of the album: it was to be ready before the 2006 Ozzfest festival. Despite this, Townsend stated the recording was not rushed, and *The New Black* became a critical, as well as a commercial, success. It was more melodic than any of the band's previous albums, and brought back the debut album's tongue-in-cheek humour.

"Decimator" references "Depth Charge" from *Accelerated Evolution*. "Far Beyond Metal" is a studio recording of a tour song previously released on *No Sleep 'till Bedtime* and *For Those Aboot to Rock*. "Almost Again" emulates the keyboard-heavy ending of "Truth" from *Infinity*. "Polyphony" shares a riff with "Judgement" from *Synchestra*. A riff from "Monument" was later used as the bridge riff of "Lucky Animals" on *Epicloud*. An instrumental version of "Fucker" called "Catwalk" was released on *Contain Us*.

## Promotion and touring

A music video was shot in late May to accompany the sole single from the album, "Wrong Side". In June 2006, Strapping Young Lad embarked on a short festival tour of Europe, including performances at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals in Germany, and the Download Festival in England, which was followed by a second stage appearance at Ozzfest in July and August, where they played to some of the largest audiences in their career.

## Packaging

The album comes packaged with a second CD featuring a sampling of various other Century Media artists. The European version contains two bonus tracks. The Japanese version contains "The Long Pig" and the instrumental "C:ENTER:###."

## Release and reception

*The New Black* was released on July 11, 2006. Having sold more than 4,000 copies during its first week, *The New Black* reached No. 200 on the Billboard 200 chart, No. 15 on the Top Independent Albums, and No. 8 on the Top Heatseekers charts.

Stylus Magazine's Cosmo Lee described it as "heavy, catchy, and with no filler", and About.com's Chad Bowar was also positive, giving the album four and a half stars out of five and stating that it is "a CD that's dense and heavy, but also has some memorable hooks".

The album was well received by the public. On Rate Your Music, the album has an average rating of 3.43 out of 5, based on more than 1,250 ratings, and on Sputnikmusic, the album has a "great" average rating of 3.7 out of 5, based on more than 550 ratings.

## Track listing

All songs written by Devin Townsend.

1. "Decimator" (2:53)
2. "You Suck" (2:40)
3. "Anti-Product" (3:56)
4. "Monument" (4:11)
5. "Wrong Side" (3:35)
6. "Hope" (5:02)
7. "Far Beyond Metal" (4:36)
8. "Fucker" (3:53)
9. "Almost Again" (3:43)
10. "Polyphony" (1:54)
11. "The New Black" (6:15)
**European bonus tracks**
12. "The Long Pig" (1:22)
13. "Zodiac (Melvins cover)" (3:59)
**Japanese bonus track**
14. "C:ENTER:###" (3:05)

## Personnel

### Strapping Young Lad

* Devin Townsend – vocals, guitar, production
* Jed Simon – guitar, backing vocals
* Gene Hoglan – drums, percussion
* Byron Stroud – bass, backing vocals
* Will Campagna – keyboards, backing vocals

### Guest vocalists

* Cam Kroetsch (The Almighty Punchdrunk) – guest vocals on "You Suck"
* Oderus Urungus (Gwar) – guest vocals on "Far Beyond Metal"
* Bif Naked – guest vocals on "Fucker"
* Chris Valagao (Zimmers Hole) – backing vocals

### Production

* Shaun Thingvold – engineering
* Mike Fraser – mixing
* Ryan Van Poederooyen – drum technician
* Travis Smith – artwork and photography

## References

1. ↑ Century Media Records
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Blistering interview with Devin Townsend
3. ↑ Strapping Young Lad to Film "Wrong Side" Video, Extras Needed
4. ↑ Century Media *The New Black* order page
5. ↑ July 2006 Billboard Chart
6. ↑ Billboard artist chart history
7. ↑ Stylus Magazine review
8. ↑ About.com review
9. ↑ The New Black by Strapping Young Lad (Album, Industrial Metal) @ Rate Your Music
10. ↑ Strapping Young Lad - The New Black User Opinions @ Sputnikmusic

## External links

* The New Black at Century Media Records
* *The New Black* at Discogs