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Strapping Young Lad is dead, but we can forever honor them by keeping them in our memories. And what better way to commemorate SYL than with a huge seven vinyl box set?
From the website of Blood Music:
Sitting opposite Devin Townsend, I am able to witness firsthand his mid-day queasiness (credited to a crummy breakfast), the way conversation causes him to perk up in little plateaus, and his determination while outlining his plans for the coming years. He’s excitedly building something, I observe, with this string of late-year shows in small markets serving as launch ramp to a bigger viability. It’s incredible, but this metal guy — despite boasting an 18-album discography over 16 years, including four Devin Townsend Project records that make up the exquisite Contain Us boxset — is fixed on a greater achievement: more autonomy.
Which is wild if you think about it. Townsend — the sole artist on his own Hevy Devy Records, a eight-tool studio whiz, and a frequent genre-buster now at a peak in popularity — appears to be the most creatively and commercially unbound musician ever in any genre. In his own studio and enlisting his peers, Townsend can make any project fly, be it puppet opera (Ziltoid The Omniscient and its planned sequel) or a prog-metal-Quadrophrenia-on-peyote theatrical epic (this year’s masterful Deconstruction) or sweet Anneke van Giersbergen-voiced pop metal (2009‘s Addicted, the forthcoming Epicloud project).
So what more does he want? The clue lies in DTP’s one-album-per-night shows back in November, and a massive event this Fall called The Retinal Circus: He’s steadily setting foundations for a bigger live show with a bigger budget, in reference to which his term is “absurd” (a word he pronounces “ob-zurd,” though it’s unclear whether that’s a product of Canadianism or just the way “homage” is said by certain people “oh-mazhe” and by others “Ah-mej”). But why, in these uncertain times, is Townsend forsaking modest aims for risk? We might surmise that he’s not satisfied to perform only parts of sprawling epics like Deconstruction and Ziltoid, nor to sub in backing tracks for his orchestras and choirs. To us, he could be metal’s most ambitious madman or a joker set on his own destruction. He probably wants nothing more sinister than to have shitloads of fun.
For the moment it’s a bit vague. What becomes clear over the course of our talk is that he is an entertainer and a liberator, a spirit-guide on a tour through the heart of a metal guy’s frantic consciousness. To this end, he is fortifying his fanbase. Hours after our talk, Townsend will display this onstage, loudly describing his suit’s odor as that “of a thousand ballbags,” bolting stage-right and out around the crowd to rock in the face of a 50-ish spectator seated mid-venue, and segueing regularly into and out of instrumental passages with self-reducing quips (“I’m a fucking dink! Go!”). He’ll dole out mid-show bro-fists, press forehead-to-forehead with front-row fans, and call his song “Life” his “gayest ever.” After the show, as cymbals are still ringing, Townsend will hop right down off the stage to greet and pose with all concertgoers. He’s friendly and sincere to each. He’s got plans for them.
…Devin Townsend recently performed an acoustic version of the song — the first time he’s dipped into the SYL catalog since that group disbanded in 2007 — and hol-ee shee-ite, does the song just sound that much sexier with Devy whispering sweet nothings in your ear. See what’s all the fuss about below:
In semi-related news, Townsend just announce The Retinal Circus, a ridiculously-awesome sounding concert set to take place in London on October 27, 2012. There are a LOT of cool goings-on involved with this show — so many that I probably should have just written a whole post about it, but oh well — so just go here to read the press release, get all the details, and find out how you can buy tickets. This sounds like the kind of thing that might actually get me on plane to London.
-AR
[via Heavy Blog is Heavy]
Devin Townsend has so much explaining to do. As a tireless songwriter and producer, he’s set to release two albums on June 21, Ghost and Deconstruction, to complete the Devin Townsend Project cycle that he started with 2009′s Ki and Addicted. That’s four full-length records, 43 songs, and 260 minutes of music unleashed over about two years. But for Townsend, discussion goes beyond song ideas and his exhaustive studio work required to bring them to life; he could talk all day and yet only touch on the subjects of touring, sales, and modern music industry calamity; and, shit, his back catalogue is too huge and varied to even approach in a Q&A of any reasonable length.
You see, being a modern musician and being Devin Townsend are not the same thing. Sure, he grinds out records and then tours like everybody. However, our latest MetalSucks interview with Townsend reveals an artist unbound by the limits of imagination, but pretty aware of averse reactions to his art; his self-expression is total and unapologetic — until fans and media misinterpret him or disapprove of his humor. He’s confident as a person, but shakeable as a virtuosic guitar player, a theater and puppet enthusiast, and a production wiz. He lets no truth about his world go unexpressed, beit via the hair-raising cacophony of Deconstruction (think Strapping Young Lad’s Alien: The Ride) or Ghost‘s murmuring calm. He puts himself out there all the way; now, let him explain why.
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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.
This week, we have our first ever reader-suggested QOTW, coming from MetalSucks Maniac Cougar Party:
WHAT BANDS DO YOU HATE THAT YOU HAVE SEEN LIVE MULTIPLE TIMES BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS OPENING FOR SOMEONE YOU LIKE?
The MS staff’s answers after the jump.
Video from the show by Bmoviesandmetal
I’d like to think I’m an okay girlfriend. I don’t do the whole creepy baby talk thing, I’m not a “woo girl” (I’m watching How I Met Your Mother while writing this and Christ. This episode is making me so happy I went to art school, because now I can handle pretentious douches so much better than drunk sorority girls who hoot at Every. Goddamn. Thing), and I don’t yell at the boy if he’d rather play a Star Wars role playing game than hang out with me. Hey, sometimes you gotta go kill an errant Jawa.
So it’s with some smug pride that I believe I lived up to the title of good girlfriend this past weekend. You see, my boy has loved Devin Townsend since high school. What better birthday gift than tickets to his show as well as entrance to the special VIP meet and greet? To top it off, we would laugh at, rather than be one of, the “metal couples.” You know who they are. Standing in a tight clinch and glaring at anyone who dares breathe their air. Haha, jerks. Whoops, just jostled you.
To the MetalSucks Maniac known as “Sacajewea,” we would like to say the following: YOU ARE A FUCKING RETARD. It’s incredible how retarded you are, you stupid fucking idiot mongoloid half-wit retard.
We send this message because in October of ’09, Sacajewea left a comment on the very first post we ever wrote, saying he was “Just here to dig up the past;” then he left another comment, just this past June, which read:
“I did it twice. Fuck I’m retarded. If anyone sees this please find me in a recent post and tell me how retarded I am.”
On December 26, 2006 — a date that will live in infamy — we did what professionals call a “soft launch” but we just call “the day we first posted on this blog.” Our slogan was “Smart About Metal,” a play on the slogan for Film Comment magazine.
We had these two stupid South Park caricatures that Axl made at his then-job when he was bored. (Axl forgot until just now that he had a really long goatee in ’06; Vince still had phantom Jew ‘fro, where some days he can feel it, man!) We only posted once or twice a day, throughout the week, pretty much when we had time/interest. We didn’t use tags. We often didn’t post graphics or videos. Our headlines weren’t capitalized. We interviewed members of Stuck Mojo and Twisted Sister, because that’s who we could get interviews with. Believe it or not, we tried to get an interview with God Forbid… and we failed.
Basically, we had no fucking idea what we were doing.
We can’t believe that this is our 10,000th post. We can’t believe we’re still doing this almost four years after we started. We can’t believe that so many of you are reading it. Seriously: WE WERE ONLY FUCKING KIDDING.
So…
Thanks to Kip (who has been here longer than anyone besides Vince and Axl!), Sammy, Gary, Anso, Satan (the MetalSucks contributor and the deity), Sergeant D., Bob, Leyla, Corey, Urbandale, Dave, Matt, Ferris, Dallas, Eyal, Sacha, Paul, Bulb, Arthur, Anton OyVey, Rich Hallford, David Bee Roth, Van Arseface, Mike Pattongill, Angela Gossowski, Joey V., and everyone else who has ever written for us… MetalSucks would not be where it is if not for all of you.
Thanks to everyone in the music industry who has helped us over the years, even as they must have been secretly hoping we would van flip.
And of course, thanks to all the MetalSucks Maniacs, Suckalos, annoying people who can’t use the “search” function, and dudes that have sent us death threats. We can’t tell you how grateful we are that you read our site. Thank you thank you thank you.
Now, with a complete lack of humility, Axl and Vince present their ten favorite MetalSucks posts of all time. Enjoy.
Is Yahoo’s crossword puzzle creator a metalhead? Given the fact that there are a million and one other hints I could think of that would lead to the implied answer “lad,” I’d wager he or she is. Even just plain old “Strapping Young ___” without the “(Canadian Band)” descriptor would’ve been enough to jog even the most pot-addled of brains.
It’s aways fun to see metal shout-outs in the most unlikely of places, especially a more off-the-beaten-path reference like SYL. Mama Neilstein would totally send me a link like this… if she even knew SYL were a metal band.
-VN
Thanks: Brandon Fountain
My first memory of being super-impressed by tales of massive drug abuse was when my uncle explained that Stevie Ray Vaughan’s favorite breakfast once was an eight-ball of coke poured into a liter of Jack Daniel’s. That is quality partying, not that St. Patrick’s Day beer-and-barf beginner stuff. I was floored. Barely big enough to hold a guitar, I then and there resolved to achieve those heights of consumption. I also began to keep a wish list of kick-ass drug gobblers with whom I’d one day party hardy, with Vaughan in the first slot.
By 1996, metal maniac Devin Townsend was added to that list. Even before hearing gossip of his heroic intake, I presumed from hundreds of listens to Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing that Devy might be the type to get screamingly high and, like, take a dump in a busy intersection while doing a headspin. Maybe I was projecting. Actually, in retrospect, a mega-fucked up Townsend might be too much for me. He sure was too much for ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted!
I guess some metal dudes are annoyed by neo-thrash metal bands like Warbringer, Mantic Ritual, and Municipal Waste. No scene is fun for everyone, so whatever, to each his own and all that. But even if Whorebanger, Spandex Ritual, and Munificent Waste make music of no appeal to your fun-hating ear, frankly, I still insist that you acknowledge their value to metal as a genre. First, each makes music that sounds like five guys making music, which feels great when you’re overwhelmed by metal that sounds like the universe collapsing onto itself (SYL, Emperor), a jet landing in your eye socket (Hate Eternal, Minus’ Jesus Christ Bobby), or mankind’s overthrow by fridge-raiding Nazi robots from the future (Fear Factory). Of course, I love that enormity in metal, especially when it’s the expression of an awareness of Earth’s microscopic significance in the universe. But sometimes it’s more fun to just rock out with a bunch of heshers. That’s good thrash metal. It sounds great at the beach.
And a second and unexpected side effect of neo-thrash’s artistic and commercial successes is their impact on other metal bands. This is all conjecture and surmise, but Municipal Waste’s records are big winners, and now we got a goddamn fucking D.R.I. reunion tour to enjoy. And isn’t it reasonable to conclude that Warbringer’s success would provide a shot of confidence and vigor to elder thrash bands, like fucking awesome Overkill? If you’ve heard their excellent 238th record, Ironbound, you know it’s all energetic and snappy metal (normal for them), but also that it’s their most unabashedly thrashy record in forever. And few deserve wallet-love as much as Overkill, who, contrary to their name, exemplify the unpretentious hesher approach. (See The Years Of Decay‘s “I Hate” which features gang vocals that sound like six dirtballs hollering out the back of a van, not a million-strong army of angry mutant outcasts, like say “Hook In Mouth” by Megadeth.) Big sales or not, Overkill did their part and made a metal record to be reckoned with. For this, we can thank the best neo-thrash bands and fans. For the best parts of neo-thrash, we can thank Overkill.
-ADF
Like everybody, I have metalphobes in my family and the workplace, but still among those unfortunate dolts are some otherwise trustworthy fans of strong, melody-based non-metal. So there’s a persistent temptation to debase myself and metal by pressing on them with samples of pop-ish metal like Testament’s The Ritual and Bruce Dickinson’s fabulous Skunkworks. I mean, is heaviness an automatic deal-breaker for these dunces? Let’s say there be a perfectly crafted/really heavy song with all the touchstones of major pop satisfaction (and lyrical themes containing no allusions to face-raping a corpse), would it still resemble psychotic noise to lamewads? Or do good hooks transcend genre and pussyness? Are “Enter Sandman” and “Cum On Feel The Noize” both examples of flawless hit-making or of novelty successes like the “Where’s The Beef?” lady and ”The Bartman?”
As usual, it eventually occurred to me that the answer to all things is Devin Townsend.
Okay. I started SYL in 1993 after hearing Soul Of A New Machine. I saw Fear Factory open for Sepultura with Clutch, and I remember running around the venue telling everyone: “THAT is what I want to do, except with extra chaos…”
My creative process is directly tied to my emotional development. There are some folks that make music by picking up a guitar until they have a riff that is defined by the musical roads they choose to hone. They then sculpt it into that framework and voila, Metallica, Slayer, Priest etc. I think that’s awesome, and in some ways I’m envious of that. In many cases, if you mix that with tenacity and a certain amount of talent and luck, you can sustain a decent career.
That’s not how I create, again… as it is tied to life and circumstance, my music has generally been cathartic observations of what life presents, and each new record in many ways is a reaction to the one before. So in the most blunt of terms, I make music to better understand myself as I change.
For all of you who want nothing to do with my music, have tried and don’t get it, or think I’m a total hack, continue on to the next blurb, as I’m going to spend the next few paragraphs stroking myself and thinking that I’m super.
Anyways, heres a bunch of videos… it’s hard to give a solid overview after twenty-something albums, but anyways…
So Borivoj Krgin eh? [Krgin runs Blabbermouth.- Ed.] Here’s my story about the man…
He signed SYL. Without Bori, there would be no current anything for me in terms of my metal career. He rocked me hard. And Nevermore, Stuck Mojo etc…
He let me sleep on his couch for three or four months while I was writing City. He was (is) a good friend.
Blabbermouth is a site I go to almost everyday. I would bet any metal musician who tells you they’ve never been is full of shit. It’s incredibly hard to resist reading things about yourself that are either flattering, or make you look like a total douchebag.
The thing is:
He doesn’t make the stuff up. Any jackassery that I have been quoted as saying, I really did say. Blabbermouth changed the way we do interviews by making us accountable.
Yo cats, I’m Devin Townsend. I’m a middle class, white Canadian male. I am bald with bad teeth and I am 37 years old. I used to front a band called Strapping Young Lad. I have put out around twenty albums between SYL and my solo records over the last eighteen or so years. I have a record label called HevyDevy Records that distributes my records to the the best of our ability. I produce and mix bands. I have done some great work and some shitty work. I don’t really care about downloading because the industry changed and I have never sold enough records for me to make more than a normal living. Please have a great day and thanks for any and all support.
I am in the middle of a four record project called “The Devin Townsend Project.” Ironically enough, and EGADS!, today I am taking over one of my favorite websites, MetalSucks.
I have a ton of things on my mind today, please enjoy… even if you hate my fucking guts, hopefully I can provide you with some cool stuff to chew on.
HOTCHA!
-Devin Townsend
It’s been a while since we’ve reported on the current Fear Factory drama because, well, it got boring re-hashing the same old shit over and over again just to get you guys all hot and bothered in the comments (whoops, did I just say that?). To summarize, in case you didn’t read this site missed out over the summer: Dino re-friends Burton Bell and the two start working on new music under the “Fear Factory” name, while Christian and Raymond — currently working on their Arkaea project — rightly object because Fear Factory is supposedly a four-way partnership. Lawsuits and public shit-talking ensue.
Last I checked a resolution between the two warring Fear Factions hadn’t been reached. So either the four men have settled, or Dino and Burton — let’s just call them the baby-eating Fear Faction — just don’t give a fuck. The baby-eating Fear Faction, along with latter-day FF cohorts Byron Stroud [Strapping Young Lad] and Gene Hoglan [Strapping Young Lad, Dethklok, every fucking band ever] — just announced that they have a new album called Mechanized coming out on February 9th via Candlelight Records (!?!).
The new song “Powershifter” has been making the Internet rounds all weekend; stream it below. Unsurprisingly, it sounds a lot like Fear Factory. I imagine some of you will love it and some of you will hate it; place me firmly in the “meh” camp. I loves me some Demanufcature and Obsolete, but 10 years later there are tons of metal bands out there that are way better, more interesting, and more worthy of my listening time.
-VN
In news that will only bum out people who have never heard Addicted, Ki, Ziltoid (the album, not the guy who leaves comments here telling us how bad we suck), or any number of other Devin Townsend projects that aren’t Strapping Young Lad, The Formerly Skulleted One has announced that he will not be playing any SYL material on his forthcoming tour with Between the Buried and Me, Cynic, and Scale The Summit.
And there isn’t much more to say than that. I love SYL as much as the next drunken ree-ree, but Townsend has plenty of other great albums from which to pull material, and I’m dying to hear stuff from the last few records that has never been performed live before. And since he’s not the headliner and I imagine his set time will therefore be a little shorter than some of us might like, it’s only natural that he’d want to concentrate on stuff he wasn’t out on the road playing for years and years prior to SYL’s demise.
Or, put more succinctly: even though some idiots will surely bitch and moan, this isn’t a big deal, and this tour is still gonna be awesome.
Addicted, which really is fantastic, comes out November 17 on InsideOut Music.
-AR
We all know Mr. Townsend as a top-notch writer, producer, guitarist and all around weird/awesome dude. But did you know the guy can fucking sing his balls off?? His vocal performances on all of the SYL records were always great, no disrespect meant there, but his vocals on the 4-album Devin Townsend Project suite show a whole new side of his musical abilities. Check out this self-recorded video, below, of Devin tracking his own vocals for the 2nd record, Addicted (out November 17th), which Devin posted on his MySpace page.
First thing you notice is how strong, steady and accurate his voice is. Then you notice that he’s holding the mic, as opposed to it being on a mic stand, and he’s getting perfect-sounding takes despite any potential variance in distance from his mouth and the lack of a popper stopper. This is obviously a man who records vocals this way quite often. Then you think… wait a minute… he’s not wearing headphones… isn’t he worried about bleed? To which the answer, I guess, would be “no, he doesn’t give a shit” which is quite curious to me. Maybe all the extra noise from the speakers makes the final product sound bigger, or maybe it’s insignificant. Then you realize the fluidity with which he records each take, and the attention to detail that he puts into every single word of his performance. Then you realize, once again, what a talented vocalist he is.
It’s quite impressive, really. I can see why bands seem to have a love/hate relationship with his production methods and why someone like Speed Strid of Soilwork insists on producing vocals with him. On one hand it’s got to be quite a grueling process, but on the other hand he’s quite obviously super-skilled and is definitely going to get the best result possible.
-VN
Addicted is an excellent name for the new album (and the second release this year alone!) from The Devin Townsend Project, for it is truly addictive. As Townsend himself put it, it’s a “no bullshit” heavy rock confection that’s as catchy as swine flu (and the dynamic between Townsend’s vocals and those of The Gathering’s Anneke van Giersbergen don’t hurt, either). Pussies who thought that Ki was too soft will be happy to hear Devin doing something a little more in line with SYL; real men who recognize that pretty much everything Townsend touches turns to awesome already know what they can expect.
There’s a teaser medley currently streaming on Townsend’s MySpace page; so many of you e-mailed us about it this morning that I’m not even sure why I’m telling you. I guess for the five of you are apparently unaware.
Addicted comes out November 17 on InsideOut Music.
-AR
Strapping Young Lad, Alien (Century, 2005)
Devin Townsend– Vocals/Guitars/Keyboards
Jed Simon – Guitars
Byron Stroud – Drums
Gene Hoglan – Drums
Produced by Devin Townsend
By the time of 2005′s Alien, Strapping Young Lad frontman Devin Townsend had been keeping a frantic pace for a decade: He regularly produced three albums a year, he had solo albums leaking from his bum, and his once-abandoned SYL returned to active status.
That SYL returned with an unheard-of two albums in two years was great news, but it was unexpected that Alien would be SYL’s masterpiece, a cacophonous set of maelstrom metal with the occasional twinkle of Devy solo records. A few weeks before its release, Townsend told me that SYL (the album) came about cuz he was finally frustrated/freaked enough to make a SYL (the band) album. Like it or not, after six years had passed since their penultimate 1997 record City; lotsa shit had changed in the world at large since then, including some large-scale bloodshed.
