Review Summary: Majestic, powerful and coherent, City is genius.
"City" definitely isn't the soundtrack to happy sunny days. In fact this is some of the angriest music that's ever been put on tape and if tuned to
that particular wavelength, it'll stick to your brain like no other album you ever heard before or since. There is just something so painfully honest and even somewhat naive about the music and lyrics on offer here that you can't help but start developing some inner deep connection with them, to the point when it all becomes an almost religious experience of sorts.
And it's reflected nowhere better than in the first proper song on the album - “All Hail The New Flesh”. With a title like this you already expect something special, don't you? It opens with a most devastating primal scream you can think of, with singer/songwriter Devin Townsend sounding like a madman who's been serving his long painful sentence in jail for the crime he didn't commit and now finally decided to get free, at least in spiritual sense. If that sounds superfluous to you, think twice.
«I will never be afraid, I'll die for what I believe!» he roars so convincingly that one is tend to believe, this man really means it. The whole song is just raw emotion in its purest unadulterated form. If it doesn't make you at least
feel something, nothing here will. Sometimes this is just enough to bring someone back from the dead, figuratively speaking. This is the ultimate anti depressant in the music sense if there ever was one.
The thing is whether it's that song or the whole album, there seems nothing fake about it even though everything here is clearly produced in such a way, as to make it all sound as ridiculously heavy and over the top as humanly possible, mocking each and every metal cliché in existence on the way. Take for example song “Oh My ***ing God”, which features such disturbingly harsh shrieks that could make Dani Filth jealous. City is one of the heaviest albums ever recorded no doubt, but it also happens to be one of the most fun and exciting ones to listen to, which is far more important. It effortlessly mixes a lot of different styles from industrial rock to black metal and everything in between, never giving you time to feel tired or bored. Which is a little ironic because for the whole duration you're listening to the voice of a man who's apparently been sick and tired of nearly everything in his life, the fact which is revealed in one of the album's highlights “Underneath the Waves”. Vocal work here is particularly impressive when Townsend delivers the lines
«No one knows why, no one on and on!» with a subtlety of the raging storm on Jupiter.
While being a very entertaining record, it is also one of the catchiest and most melody driven extreme metal albums out there, thanks to the excellent songwriting which finds a place for use of atmospheric keyboards and semi clean vocals when necessary amidst all the rage and fury. Besides the already mentioned songs the melody shines especially bright in one of the band's signature tracks – Detox.
«How did I get here tonight? What am I doing here? How did I reach this state? How did I lose my sight!» shouts Dev at himself in one of the disc's most uplifting and heart wrenching moments. But perhaps the true torturous nature of Devin's state of mind at the time is revealed in the album closer ”Spirituality”.
«There’s got to be Another way, Another place for me, Please, help me, please... And every night, I look to the sky, And pray the god to hear me...» he sings so desperately as if his very life depends on it.
As for some of the flaws this record might have, the cover of “Room 429” doesn't exactly feel like it belongs here because of its drastically different sound and vibe, while the hard hitting “Home Nucleonics” or claustrophobic “AAA” together don't really offer anything particularly new or original in the music kind of sense. Also, some people may find the total absence of guitar solos disappointing or the often ridiculously in-your-face style of vocal delivery too annoying for them, because Townsend doesn't actually sound at all like your typical “heavy/black/death metal singer” and more like when people get pissed off in real life.
Many years have passed since its release and yet, Strapping Young Lad's City still sounds as fresh, heavy and unique as it did in 1997, which is a testament to the hard work that has clearly gone into its production. Even today, it's an often overlooked masterpiece of metal genre and one of those rare life changing albums out there you'll remember for the rest of your days. If there ever was one metal album you'll need in your life, City is the one and you'll get by. Yep, exactly like “Velvet Kevorkian” tells you in the very beginning. It just doesn't get much better than this.
