Strapping Young Lad (album)

*This article is about the album. For the band, see Strapping Young Lad; for the song, see "S.Y.L."*

## ***Strapping Young Lad***

### Genre

Extreme metal, industrial metal, thrash metal

### Producer

Devin Townsend

***Strapping Young Lad*** (also referred to as ***SYL***) is the eponymous third album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on February 11, 2003, in close proximity to its Devin Townsend Band emotional counterpart, *Accelerated Evolution*.

## Background

In December 2001 Townsend announced that, contrary to his earlier public statements, a new Strapping Young Lad album would be released in 2002. He emphasized that he was not "forcing" his product upon fans to generate record sales, arguing that his band — and its contract with Century Media — was never a lucrative endeavour. Instead, Townsend's motivation was the "creative anger" sparked by the September 11, 2001 attacks and further cultivated during their 2001 tour, although Townsend would later downplay this as a factor. For the first time, the album would be a product of collaborative writing; the band wrote "about half" of the material on the 2001 Foot in Mouth Tour and the rest at home, starting in January 2002. After playing a small number of festivals in 2002, Strapping Young Lad entered the studio in September of that year to record the album. The words featured on the album's cover art is from the Bible, Revelations 9:18 and 9:17

## Music

Initial writing for the album reached as far back as 2000, when the track "Idom" was released on the soundtrack for *Tekkōki Mikazuki*; this is a demo containing pieces later used for "Dire," "Consequence," and "Aftermath." The album's sound was somewhat of a departure from SYL's previous albums *Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing* and *City*: Townsend's vocals became more operatic when singing, while his screams tended toward death metal-style growls; rather than the blinding extreme/industrial metal-styled songs of previous albums, much of the music was structured and produced in a manner more akin to classic death metal. The overall tone is darker and more serious in nature, containing less overt tongue-in-cheek humour than other SYL releases. The raw production style in particular is different from other records Townsend has produced; he would later on call the album "murky" and "dreadful sounding" and claimed that he "phoned [it] in". The slightly different sound on this album can in part be attributed to the fact that second guitarist Jed Simon plays the vast majority of rhythm guitars. This was due to Townsend's concurrent production and recording of *Accelerated Evolution* by the Devin Townsend Band, which was released only a few weeks later; the guitar parts were recorded solely by Simon, and the album was mixed by Shaun Thingvold without Townsend present at all.

## Liner notes

*Note: The following text is included with the album as released on The Complete Works vinyl box.*

> *After touring the Physicist stuff and reacquainting myself with the live scene, I suppose I began to work through myself imposed fears of the parts of myself that were responsible for 'City'. I began to flirt with SYL type writing and convinced myself that if I took the approach of a 'typical metal band' (IE: group participation and standard 'metal' topics) I could get away with being involved with SYL again. To be honest, I enjoyed the attention that City had brought, and not having ever been a part of a 'cool crowd', the accolades and live shows were pretty intoxicating.*
>
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> *I tried to remain aloof during the process. Although I brought a good 80% of the music and lyrics to the table, I encouraged Gene and Jed to contribute ideas they had stored. I think the lyrics for this record are the least connected to anything I've ever done, It was more about 'what sounded cool' and a sort of 'tough guy' posturing on my part. There were certain elements that I was satisfied with… (parts of Bring on the Young were in direct reflection to my fears of war at the time), but based on the interaction of intense subject matter with distant emotional connection, songs like 'Rape Song' came out in pretty much the exact opposite way I intended. I had seen a show on French television that included a rape scene, and it filled me with a hatred towards anyone who would do something like that to a woman that I essentially felt compelled to write a song about beating the shit out of a rapist a rapist, but due to it all, the intention backfired and some folks thought it was 'pro-rape'.*
>
>
> *The Strapping music had always caused me unrest based on idiosyncrasies like this, and I found that during SYL, the scene that was supporting this music was becoming much further out of my control, and more involved with things and lifestyles I didn't understand. It heavily invested in me continuing to play a role I had been unconsciously developing, just to buffer the fact that I was actually very uncomfortable with the work that went into representing it. I didn't realize it at the time, but much of my energy was going into protecting an image I had of myself so that people wouldn't see I was actually very afraid of how it was evolving.*
>
>
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> *The record was recorded in tandem with Accelerated Evolution, which I believe I insisted on doing to counteract the uneasiness I was feeling about where SYL was headed. In fact, I put so much energy into Accelerated, that I almost completely divorced myself from the production of SYL. Jed played the guitar parts, and Shaun Thingvold mixed it without me. I suppose I thought that if I didn't pay attention to it, it would just sort of 'happen' and it wouldn't be a big deal. Of course, by this point, Jed Gene and Byron were 100% committed to the project and the worked extremely hard to finish it. When it was done, I felt almost no emotional connection to it, even considering I had written the vast majority of it. To this day, I think it's a murky, dreadful sounding record. There is however an endearing quality to it that I hadn't recognized at the time, and Gene and the boys played extremely well on it.*
>
>

## Reception

*SYL* was released on February 11, 2003, and became the band's first charting album, entering Billboard's Top Heatseekers at No. 97. The album received moderate critical success. Nate Smith from Rockzone.com called it a "solid addition to the Townsend catalog", but "not an instant classic". Xander Hoose from Chronicles of Chaos called it "a good album", but considers it inferior to *City*. Alec A. Head of Satan Stole My Teddybear wasn't impressed, writing, "Sadly, the songwriting putters out into a flaccid, heartless, faux-epic quagmire of riffs that have no destination, vocals that lack the ferocity and pure, unadulterated anger and emotion that Townsend exhibited on *City*, and an altogether forced, cold, and directionless sense of songwriting." *Strapping Young Lad* differed from *Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing* and *City* in that it was less industrial and more reminiscent of death metal; the humour pervading the previous two albums became more subdued.

## Track listing

All songs written by Devin Townsend.

1. "Dire" (1:10)
2. "Consequence" (4:02)
3. "Relentless" (3:03)
4. "Rape Song" (3:09)
5. "Aftermath" (6:46)
6. "Devour" (2:53)
7. "Last Minute" (3:58)
8. "Force Fed" (5:23)
9. "Dirt Pride" (2:40)
10. "Bring on the Young" (5:53)
**International bonus tracks**
11. "Detox (Live)" (6:40) [Australian edition]
12. "Underneath the Waves (Live)" (3:59) [Japanese edition]

## Personnel

### Strapping Young Lad

* Devin Townsend – guitar, vocals, keyboards, samples, engineering, production
* Gene Hoglan – drums
* Jed Simon – guitar, keyboards, samples, choir, chorus
* Byron Stroud – bass, choir, chorus

### Additional vocals

Chris Valagao, Ani Kyd, Tammy Theis, Marnie Mains, Carla Levis, Laurielynn Bridger

### Heavy metal choir

Glenn Thomson, Denton Booth, Charlie Goler, Juanita English, Jeremy Glen, Blackie LeBlanc, Henry Goler, Jay Mosdell, Samanta Palomino, Eden Wagonner, Christ Stanley, Scarlet Stanley, Stuart Carruthers, Sue Carruthers, Sean Carruthers, Denis, Stevie J., La Sparka, Rossy Living, Dev, Jed and Byron

### Production

* Strapping Young Lad – production
* Paul Silveira – engineering
* Shaun Thingvold – engineering, mixing
* Misha Rajaratnam – engineering
* Carla Levis – assistant engineering
* Byron Stroud – project coordination
* Louie Teran – mastering
* Kurt Dahle – drum technician
* Daniel Michael Collins – photography
* Nico Wobben – photography
* Travis Smith – visuals

## References

1. ↑ Strapping Young Lad to Record New Album
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ultimate Guitar Devin Townsend Interview: "I Wanna Be Part of Something. I Don't Wanna Be the Thing."
3. ↑ Strapping Young Lad Axeman Rocks Out on Three Fronts
4. ↑ CoC Interviews Gene Hoglan of Strapping Young Lad
5. ↑ Strapping Young Lad Enter Studio to Record Third CD
6. ↑ Devin Townsend Project Discography: "When it was done, I felt almost no emotional connection to it, even considering I had written the vast majority of it. To this day, I think it's a murky, dreadful sounding record."
7. ↑ Devin Townsend Project Discography: "The record was recorded in tandem with Accelerated Evolution, which I believe I insisted on doing to counteract the uneasiness I was feeling about where SYL was headed. In fact, I put so much energy into Accelerated, that I almost completely divorced myself from the production of SYL. Jed played the guitar parts, and Shaun Thingvold mixed it without me."
8. ↑ Strapping Young Lad Enter Billboard Top Heatseekers Chart
9. ↑ Rockzone SYL review
10. ↑ Chronicles of Chaos SYL review
11. ↑ *Strapping Young Lad* review at Satan Stole My Teddybear
12. ↑ Chain DLK interview
13. ↑ Strapping Young Lad: Tales of Insecurity and Fear (Blabbermouth Review)