Strapping Young Lad - Strapping Young Lad (2003)
Commonly referred to as the weakest album in the Strapping Young Lad discography for various reasons, the self-titled is a pretty admirable effort all the same. Legend has it that Devin Townsend didn't really want to do a new Strapping Young Lad album but the other guys wanted to be able to afford something to eat other than ramen for a change, so apparently the rest of the band stepped in more as actual songwriters than just Devin Townsend's talented bunch of miscreants, with guitarist Jed Simon recording a lot of the guitar work on this album, and apparently the band had more of a hand in producing it than Devin Townsend did because this doesn't really have any of the power that "City" did. You know how that album sounded like a HUGE wall of impenetrable sound that was repeatedly beating the shit out of your eardrums? This sounds really raw and demo-like in comparison, which is disappointing to a degree, but there's still plenty of moments where it manages to work its murky, muddy sound to its advantage, making it a bit bumpier of a ride than it was before, especially with how the drums can become fuckin' BURIED in the mix, which you DO NOT do with the legendary human drum-machine Gene Hoglan in your band, but regardless of how bumpy the ride is, it's still enjoyable.
People will shit on this album a fair bit because it's a weak release by them in comparison to some of their other shit, but if you take it at face-value as just an album, then it's got some nice fuckin' riffs! "Relentless", "Rape Song" (not at all what you'd initially imagine it to be about) and "Aftermath" in particular are a great three hit knock-out on the tracklisting. Devin Townsend's vocals sound really fucking depraved and black metal influenced on this album at times, arguably even better than he did on "City", but the problem with this album lies in the fact that not much on this album really has a Devin Townsend feeling to it, which, yeah, you can get over if you just take the album for what it is (a band's effort, not a solo album by the most well-known member) but it just lacks the same cohesiveness that, you guessed it, "City" had, with no real cinematic feeling or clear vision of an end goal, just some dumb, brutal songs to entertain the listener like the industrial metal equivalent of junk food. It's a fun and heavy (just like me) time but there isn't that "oomph" there to get it to really stick with me as being a great album. Great album? Nope. Good album? Certainly, but labeling a Devin Townsend-affiliated album as just a "good album" without too much to say about it otherwise just feels.. Wrong.
7/10
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