Review Summary: Outshined by its predecessor and its follow-up, Strapping Young Lad's self-titled middle child still has a lot going for it.
In chronological order, Strapping Young Lad's five studio releases have an odd symmetry to them in terms of quality. Book-ending their career are
Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing and
The New Black, both highly diverse but rather unfocused efforts that showed the band's more playful, comedic side. In between those are what are widely regarded as their best achievements,
City and
Alien, both of which distil the band's madness and brutality into albums that are ridiculously extreme and surprisingly listenable at the same time, though different enough from each other to stand on their own.
And in the middle? Right in the middle we have Strapping Young Lad's eponymous album, these days overlooked in favour of not only
Alien and
City, but Devin Townsend's own solo output at the time. It was released after a four-year hiatus (essentially a geological era for the prolific bald Canadian), during which he built upon his gigantic “wall of sound” production style that has become his trademark. In contrast to the single-minded vision of previous releases, SYL introduced a more collaborative style that would remain until the band's disbandment in 2007.
Even though opening track
Dire features the huge, layered production and multi-tracked choir vocals that are Townsend's signature, the album is mostly a stripped-down, riff-centric affair. The tracks
Consequence,
Relentless and
Aftermath are among Strapping Young Lad's finest and display a concentrated effort by the whole band to simply pulverize everything that lies before them, one spine-snapping riff at a time. Gene Hoglan's inhumanly precise performance shines here, as he blasts the kick drums into oblivion.
Even though the production style is a departure from every other
Strapping release (and almost every Devin Townsend release), and despite Townsend's own future claims that it is sub-par, the production of the album is actually pretty great. It hearkens back to more straightforward thrash and death metal albums while still having a distinct quality of its own. Although the industrial sound of
City is mostly abandoned and the symphonic sound of
Alien is not yet fully realised, a few of these elements are peppered around the tracks to add a unique flavour, most noticeably in the amazing
Force Fed.
As always, Townsend's vocal abilities are a force to be reckoned with. His inhuman shrieks are abundant on almost every song and he also doesn't shy away from unleashing his fantastic clean singing. The sheer strength of his vocal abilities makes it easy to overlook the fact that, unlike on previous and subsequent releases, his voice is particularly raw here. Intensive multi-tracking is mostly abandoned in favour of a much more direct approach. You can almost feel him spitting in your face as he delivers what are interestingly the most politically-charged lyrics of his entire career, at least in comparison to his usual fare of personal struggles and farting aliens.
Unfortunately, there's a reason why
Strapping Young Lad is the awkward middle-child of the band's discography. The album's second half is much less memorable than the first, with many riffs falling flat and songs like
Bring on the Young feeling half-baked, desperate for the full-fledged symphonic approach Townsend is capable of. There's a certain dryness to the album too, not just in terms of the more straightforward production. The humour and irreverence of past and future releases is almost entirely absent, with only the ridiculous bombast of
Relentless and the absurdly direct lyrics of
Rape Song to fill the void.
But despite all that, there is a lot to love about this album. For this writer, it was a first introduction not only to Strapping Young Lad, but the immense talents of Devin Townsend too. The stronger songs are a spectacular blend of savagery and melody, while the weaker songs still have their moments even if they don't reach their full potential. It is a snapshot of a band in transition and a (mostly) successful attempt by an established musician to strip down their style to the bare essentials. Fortunately for Strapping Young Lad, those bare essentials kick ass on their own.
