Strapping Young Lad
Strapping Young Lad ( SYL short ) was a Industrial-/Death-Metal-Band from Vancouver, Canada which existed from 1995 to 2007. For the band were Devin Townsend, Jed Simon ( Zimmers Hole ), Byron Stroud ( Zimmers Hole, ex -Fear Factory) and Gene Hoglan ( Testament, Zimmers Hole, ex- Death, ex -Dark Angel). All the band's albums were released from the label Century Media.
Band History
The band initially had more the character of a side project of Devin Townsend. After the rather mediocre assessed debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing of 1995, the Townsend realized with the help of many guest musicians, the band in 1997 stabilized the currently known line-up included the previously working for Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan. Released in the same year album City is now considered classics of Industrial Metal.
The band went in the following year on a world tour, on the one show in Melbourne ( Australia) for the live album No Sleep Till Bedtime was recorded. The title of this album is a reference to Motörhead 's 1981 live album No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith. Subsequently, however, Townsend put the band back on the ice to concentrate more on his solo projects. The rest of the band formed their own projects, such as Zimmers Hole (Simon / Stroud ) or turned to other bands ( Fear Factory, Testament, and others). Curiously, Devin Townsend's solo album Physicist was indeed recorded in 2000 by the SYL- cast and corresponded more to the style of the band than that of the previous solo albums, but was released as Townsend solo album.
After Townsend had at least taken five solo albums from 1997 to 2003 and also with some side projects and guest appearances worked and produced incidentally albums of some bands, the band 2003 took place back together and recorded the third album bearing the band's name, which built stylistically to his predecessor but was classified by critics partly as too predictable.
War on the albums Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing City and even Devin Townsend the main composer and undisputed head of the band, took over the other band members from there have a greater influence on the songwriting. Since then, Strapping Young Lad are therefore no longer be seen purely as a side project of Townsend, but as a stand-alone tape with equal members.
In re touring the live DVD For Those Aboot to Rock was admitted in 2004. These parodied again a well-known title, namely, For Those About to Rock by AC / DC. This was followed in early 2005 with a new album Alien, which also more atmospheric and quiet accents in the style of Townsend extended the band's style solo albums, but otherwise much more brutal precipitated. Currently released is the album The New Black, which struck increasingly quieter or parodistischere tones and offered critical to satirical texts in the style of Zimmers Hole. Also noteworthy is the fact that only on this album, a studio version of the songs played live since 1997 Far Beyond Metal is included on the Oderus Urungus also known as can be heard as a guest singer Dave Brockie of Gwar. Devin Townsend, however, announced after the album's release, to want to lay out for family reasons and general exhaustion, the band after a subsequent world tour on ice. In May 2007, Devin Townsend announced his retirement and thus the provisional From Strapping Young Lad He wants to devote himself to his solo projects.
All the remaining band members play ( with singer Chris "The Heathen " Valagao ) present together in the band Zimmers Hole.
Style
The band's music is characterized by usually very high speed, highly distorted guitars and a futuristic atmosphere, which is achieved by samples and keyboards. The focus of the music is of very variable, emotional and most aggressive vocals of Devin Townsend. This often presents a very dynamic and eruptive processes, ranging from clear high notes to aggressive screams.