Strapping Young Lad began as a solo project by Canadian musician Devin Townsend. Once he had completed his work as vocalist on Steve Vai’s Sex and Religion and that album’s subsequent tour, he recorded the majority of the instruments on the debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing. Rather than remain a solo project, additional members and the release of the album City, saw SYL secure their line-up permanently. City was released to a huge response, prompting Kerrang! magazine to call it one of the heaviest albums ever. Even if officially disbanded in 1998, SYL continued to tour under Devin’s name until the summer 2002 when they announced SYL was back with a new album. SYL’s third album, the self titled Strapping Young Lad, marked SYL’s first release on Devin’s own label, Hevy Devy Records, which was founded just after the release of City and is managed by Devin and his wife Tracy. During the Keep It In The Family Tour in spring 2003 they toured Europe with The Devin Townsend Band and Zimmer’s Hole. In early 2004, Devin advertised on the band’s official forum for fans to join SYL for a free show at the Commodore in Vancouver. This show was filmed and released as the first DVD from SYL: For Those Aboot to Rock: Live at the Commodore. Strapping Young Lad’s fourth album, Alien was released March 22, 2005, to a mixture of reviews, mostly favouring the progressive element Devin Townsend continues to bring to extreme metal. They entered the studio in March 2006 to record their follow-up, titled The New Black - which was released in July 2006. In addition, Strapping Young Lad embarked on a short festival tour of Europe in June (including the reputable Download Festival at Castle Donington, England), and were added to the bill of the prestigious Ozzfest, where they played to some of their largest audiences thus far, in July and August 2006. Although Hoglan initially denied the definitive break-up of the band, saying they would go on tour in March 2007, he later stated Strapping Young Lad is on “extended hiatus”, and might never reunite again. |
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