Strapping Young Lad

Strapping Young Lad was an influential industrial death/thrash metal band from Vancouver, Canada, started by Devin Townsend in 1994, which is currently on hiatus since 2007. Strapping Young Lad is the angrier, more aggressive side of Devin Townsend, The Devin Townsend Band is popularly known as the happier side. Their sound is generally described as progressive death metal/industrial metal, which incorporates symphonic synth-melodies and a wall of sound production technique, although this differs from album to album.

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.

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.

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 this far, in July and August 2006.