Strapping Young Lad

Strapping Young Lad

Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in 1994. The band’s music was characterized by the use of polyrhythmic guitar riffing and drumming, blast beats and wall of sound production. Townsend disbanded the band in May 2007, announcing his decision to retreat from public view while continuing to record solo albums. Townsend is the former vocalist of Steve Vai’s 1993 album Sex & Religion and its 1994 tour.

About Strapping Young Lad in brief

Summary Strapping Young LadStrapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver in 1994. The band’s music was characterized by the use of polyrhythmic guitar riffing and drumming, blast beats and wall of sound production. Townsend was also noted for his eccentric appearance and on-stage behaviour, which greatly contributed to the band’s intense live performances. Townsend disbanded the band in May 2007, announcing his decision to retreat from public view while continuing to record solo albums. The New Black was released in 2006, and is considered to be the group’s best album by a large number of fans and critics alike. The group’s second album, City, was released on February 11, 1997, and received highly favorable critical reception. In 2002, the album was No.45 on Revolver magazine’s Metal Albums of All Time list, and also appeared on their Most Important Albums list in 2005. The album was ranked No.13 on Metal Hammer’s Top 20 Albums Of The Bomber list for 1997 and No.69 on the magazine’s 2005 Top 100 Albums Have Have They Ever? list. Townsend said City is the ultimate record of all time, and that it is the “real record” that he considers to be “the ultimate out of all of them” The band embarked on a world tour in 1997 to promote the album, which included a stop at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. The tour was the first time the band had played in North America since the 1980s, when they played in the UK and Europe.

Townsend has stated that he has no intention of touring in the United States in the near future. He has also said that he does not want to tour in the U.S. in the future, as he would like to focus on his solo career and his children’s education. He is known for his battle with bipolar disorder and dark sense of humour, which were major influences on his songwriting. He also has a history of depression, which was also a major influence on his music. Townsend is the former vocalist of Steve Vai’s 1993 album Sex & Religion and its 1994 tour, and was a member of The Wildhearts from 1993 to 1994. He played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing, under the moniker Strapping Younglad. He was rejected by Roadrunner Records and Relativity Records, who saw no commercial appeal in his music, but later signed him to a five-album deal with Century Media Records. The first album sold 143 copies in its first six months, but received favorable reviews from the heavy metal press. After a hiatus between 1999 and2002, the band released three more albums, reaching their commercial peak with the 2006 effort, The NewBlack. Townsend called Century Media’s 2006 reissue of the album as the “rebirth of a genre-defying classic” in the liner notes of the record’s liner notes. He called the reissue “record company bullshit” in interviews.