helterskelter.ca

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD
1995 - Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing.
1997 - City.
2003 - SYL.
2005 - Alien.
way more Helter Skelter.

April 4, 1995 - 2025: 30 years of: Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing.

"Howdy welcome to A&W, my name's Devin, can I take your stinkin' order ?"

Now an ex VAI-member, the eclectic Devin Townsend was unbeknown going to re-rewrite metal's history. In tormented 1995, a new tiny shitty Canadian band would change the game ...those to blame are the STRAPPING YOUNG LADs.

A blunt head trauma cracks skulls on cue, as "S.Y.L." breaks the sound barrier. The noise-gate is put to test on "Goat" and the cacophonic "Critic". The groovy vibes of "Cod Metal King" paints a more cohesive mix, yet the noise-core Armageddon of "Happy Camper (Carpe B.U.M.)" happily sends eardrums straight to the trash-compactor.

Body-wide nerve attack on every senses, the Western Civilization was now caught "In The Rainy Season", a piledriver of grind-metal and one of the band's strongest asset. The ending-coda is a mammoth-piece ...from mosh to grindcore, one man performs it all.

"The beat starts here !"

In limbo between thrash, some death-tones and industrial-rhythms, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD flew right under the saturated metal-radar. Remember that this from out of nowhere hidden gem was merely two months ahead of FEAR FACTORY's Demanufacture CD and months before RAMMSTEIN's worldwide-debut.

This is 1995 and the game was about to change.
Devin Townsend: metal's future grandiose physicist.

The hyperactive lad would surround himself with a new band, featuring drummer Gene Hoglan from DARK ANGEL-fame. Their second assault would eradicate the scene, from out of Vancouver, to your very own town with 1997's über extreme City CD.

*
S.Y.L. = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwyuM0PODuY
Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMX1-zcu2-M&list=OLAK5uy_lKrFIva22-Sd0D-ZXZGQ3ke2pNY0PeAo8
Interview in Eindhoven in 1995
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ekrKGGAsEU
Radio jam in 1995
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH0uaeNpYh8
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvpnJ9itFQc

February 11, 1997 - 2022: 25 years of: City.

"Extreme": going to great or exaggerated lengths.
"Sound Intensity": the power carried by soundwaves per unit area in a direction perpendicular to that area.
"Extreme Sound Intensity": STRAPPING YOUNG LAD !

THE MOST BLUNT and sonically powerful metal release ever in the recorded history of mankind. First there was the Big-Bang, then there was electricity ...and then there was the genius that is Devin Motherfukkin' Townsend !

Creator, singer, guitarist, studio-guru, madmen and overall funny guy: Dev is SYL and SYL is Dev. Discovered by 7-string hero Steve Vai, Devin sang and toured with VAI and quickly went solo. This new project has a name, fear them: STRAPPING YOUNG LAD ...and they rapidly became one of modern metal's fiercest force to be reckoned with.

Welcome to the neworld you weak cunt, welcome to hate and despair !

The late 90s were heavymetal's darkest times, at that point most traditional 80s bands had dissolved and/or tamed-down to mere rock-commodities. Ironically, this also meant a time of rebirth for the beast, a time for experimentation, a time to shine and re-invented the genre as a whole ...and from outta fuckin' nowhere comes SYL's City: THE MOST INSANE band with THE MOST INSANE record ever released !

Angst-wise, while the 80s had thrashmetal, the early 90s had deathmetal and now the late 90s had STRAPPING YOUNG LAD: THE MOST DEVASTATING metal band on Earth, and hey, they're fuckin' Canadians ! The perfect hybrid between thrashmetal, deathmetal, industrialmetal and everything nuclearmetal is right here, right now, under one roof in your fuckin' face !

Your eardrums shall never be the same, ever !

Picture this:

Your eardrums shall never be the same, ever !

The insanity opens-up with the hammering wall-of-sound that is "Velvet Kevorkian" where Dev let's loose on is everyday shits and then the sound pressure level pumps-up to 1000dB with "All Hail The New Flesh" ...one of THE MOST INTENSE heavymetal track EVER. The full package: speed, rage, aggression and some cursing ...and this is only song #2 ...I'll see you pigs in hell !!!

OMFG another tidal-wave in "Oh My Fucking God" where all the elements of Mother Nature goes into overdrive, in one single verse ...and get high with the serious palm-muting nirvana performed on "Detox", another violent no-shit-taken track. The beat starts here = on song #5, "Home Nucleonics", where drum-God Mister Gene Hoglan re-writes the book on modern speedmetal drumming ...makes SLAYER's Reign In Blood sounds like the fuckin' BEE GEES !

A much needed breath of air is felt in the first 0:44sec of "AAA" and then Dev stomps on your balls while shouting "No one fucks with MEEEEE !!!" ...and the gigantic raging "Underneath The Waves" swallows you into a quicksand-motion of metal-maelstrom of cataclysmic dimensions. "Room 429" is a fine cover. It displays Devin's other vocal-range and is the only time the band slowed the tempo down on this 40min impressive onslaught. The closing song "Spirituality" thrust you deeper into the migrained mind of Dev/SYL ...a track that could've easily been packaged for NIN's The Downward Spiral.

Your eardrums shall never be the same, ever !

Recorded at The Mothership, also known as Steve Vai's tool-shed and engineered by Swedish metal-master Daniel Bergstrand with the finest technological availability of 1997, City is the atomic explosion of the following particles: Devin Townsend (vocals & guitars), Jed Simon (guitars), Byron Stroud (bass) and Gene Hoglan (drums).

While most of the scene and most heavymetal bands where whimping-out in the mid 90s to either hiphop or alternative flavors, the adrenalized fueled by nitroglycerin and fused into modern-metal antidote that is STRAPPING YOUNG MOTHERFUKKIN' LAD reminded us why testosterone, Explorer-shaped guitars and high-gain amplifiers goes oh so well together.

This goliath opus was released in 1997 and has not yet been matched by any other bands, nor it shall ever be matched by any other bands ...this is the end of the line ! These extremities would later be exclusively surpassed on subsequent SYL offerings, but the genesis of this hideous / lovely metal-Frankenstein that is STRAPPING was delivered right the fuck here, in this very City.

Thank you Steve for giving that A&W-clerk a chance, thank you, thank you, thank you !!!

NB: "City" refers to the City Of Los Angeles.

*
Detox = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f20L0msLsM
City = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNOcDBBlMGI&list=PLSdWjaYgE9dUoPT4T4TU7uez2uUKvJVnb
Interview in Vancouver in 1997
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2UI-DSxkAA
Live in USA in 1997
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_pvVWeVO_8
Live in Australia in 1997
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy6cfUOULv0
No Sleep 'Till Bedtime = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cHJBT7Fse0&list=OLAK5uy_mKdyWqb3PM8NSAlegEA5anyO8dXDedooE
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EueaH6GNFKI
some other guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hJMTMxR0g0

February 11, 2003 - 2023: 20 years of: SYL.

He said they would never come back !

Rabid Devin Townsend closed the books on STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, after 1997-98's City touring cycle. Developing a solo-career deep into progrock and bohemian-metal, one event shocked us all and sparked the hate and rage S.Y.L. have been known for: 9/11

"BOMBS AWAY ! BOMBS AWAY !"

Back and bitter with a fat-tone, this "Dire" world gets punished by lethal "Consequences" ...as one man said "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists". The decibels raises to infinity, as well as the rolling techniques of the Atomic Clock: machine-man Gene Hoglan on drums.

Pride, passion and power annihilates the scene as "Relentless" riffs nümetal away, while "Aftermath" and the lovely "Devour" re-defines extreme-metal, in this extreme-metal drought of the turn of the millennium. Not thrash, not death, not industrial ...yet some of all the above. Downtuned and deadly, this loose modern freight-train doesn't stop for anyone, as displayed on "Last Minute" and the explosive hardcore burst of "Dirt Pride".

"FEEDING THE FUCKING HATE !!!"

Sonic deconstruction and specifically intended to melt harden-steel, we never knew how much we needed the STRAPPING YOUNG LADs during this chaotic post-Napster era. Ever wonder the feeling of having 10000-tons of bricks lading on your sorry ass ? ...press Play !

Witnessing the band live, this experienced writer can asses that the vibration felt from both the CD and P.A. are dangerously real. With this renewed interest and eventual overall 2003-04 heavymetal revival, the mechanical union would up the game again with 2005's Alien CD.

"And you know what else ...I suck dicks for crack money." - Dev

*
Relentless = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rqn_otVoNU
SYL = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voMbbvT_I5s&list=PLz6MODK3JW568mtE5pPrW_GhJQLpRsuno
Interview in 2003
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDY5sCP6Mns
Live in Montréal in 2003
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9VzYXS_RQc
For Those Aboot To Rock = full DVD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN50j4INZlI&list=PLWn_ThNYfPd7zaRr-w2f_OyrdLAIWjRku

March 22, 2005 - 2025: 20 years of: Alien.

A from beyond experience.

Following 2003's SYL CD grandiose return, these lads would decimate the scene and turn extremities into a pulp. STRAPPING YOUNG LAD is the antidote for status-quo and the foresight for hardened millennium-metal.

All hail the new flesh, as "Imperial" liquidates all metals in sight. Thrash, death, black and other oddities gets entangled in this fiery "Shitstorm" ...a one of kind experience at the edge of the threshold of pain.

Hot on a roll, "We Ride" at a sick pace while the steamroller of "Love ?" and the obsessive "Possessions" breaks every traditions and re-writes intensity as a whole.

In the rainy season, this metal psychoanalysis goes into over-fuckin-drive. The superior beings are: Townsend, Simon, Stroud and Hoglan ...and they colectively craft AAA-grade metal. In the aftermath, as Burnaby burns, remains shall lay to rest on 2006's The New Black CD.

*
Love ? = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeG-6bpeUkA
Alien = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ryGMZsHi4&list=OLAK5uy_mHXI4upbDRs3iHyWTMzuxIPY4zBrWSN2c
In the studio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSqtEKvtqYA
MTV2 interview in 2005
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIeiFXR6b4s
Live at Download in 2006
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa1r1WZtYcc
Gene plays Skeksis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eaIvh6ELVg
some guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZebwBbFu7Q
some band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQMTMczYDPs