Strapping Young Lad - Alien (2005)Release ID: 871
Until just recently, I never really had the appeal for industrial metal. I thought it was an overrated mainstream metal genre like alt-metal, with the invasion of bands like Ministry and Rammstein. Now I can see where its heavier background lies, when I was pulled into listening to Strapping Young Lad during my run through Devin Townsend's discography. This band has started my quest to dig into industrial metal's heavier background for bands like Fear Factory and the genre's true pioneers, Godflesh!
But for now, I'm gonna review the Strapping Young Lad albums, starting with this one Alien (the rest would be after I finished reviewing the Devin Townsend albums). Alien is the follow-up to their self-titled comeback album and, unlike other bands' fourth albums, is of higher quality instead of lower. Their extreme industrial metal is punishing!
Kicking off the CD with a bang is the fantastic crushing intro "Imperial". The song features the humans within this machine; drummer Gene Hoglan, guitarist Jed Simon, bassist Byron Stroud, and Devin Townsend who also plays guitars while screaming with a bit of clean vocals. Great start! Following this is the brutal "Skesis" where you can hear Gene's amazing drumming that might've inspired the more metal side of Protest the Hero. The drumming is filled with punishment, no remorse. Finally, the vocals kick in that are amazing as always, along with fast riffs and neat keyboards all over. The song that many people have heard the most is surprisingly the one with swearing in the title and the lyrics, "Sh*tstorm". Devin Townsend sounds absolutely p*ssed and determined to stab your eardrums (already done by the music in a way I like). The entirely shouted vocals threaten you with crazy lyrics. The song is fast with good riffs and fantastic keyboards. The choirs diversify this amazing song. Can this album get better?! Yes, with "Love?" This is an absolutely emotional composition of punishing heaviness. Devy's great vocals range from screaming to clean. The guitar, bass, and keyboards are amazing with fantastic lyrics. The best song of this album! Though I'm sure there's at least one or two song by the band that's better...
"Shine" is another song that prevent the quality from going down, crushing you into Hell with riff heaviness and drum insanity. The song keeps you busy and in attention with Devin's maniacal screaming. Once again, the choir in the second half keeps the interesting level high. There's more relentless chaos to come... "We Ride" is a fast riff ride, driving through the well-written lyrics in high gear. Something that makes this song unique for Strapping Young Lad is the amount of soloing, well-performed for listeners' ears. "Possessions" is another major highlight for this album. The lyrics might be corny for other bands, but they fit well with the band's great riffing and crushing drumming. What's fantastic is the choir being more prominently used. The choir isn't underused or overused but just right.
"Two Weeks" is where the album starts... SLOWING DOWN?!? YES!!! BUT FOR ALARM?! NO!! It's Pink Floyd-like well-written slowness! Still there isn't a break in atmosphere, adding to the album's greatness in mellow relaxing form with emotion. The only people who can't deal with this song are either strictly heavy metalheads or anyone wanting to hear the song go 200bpm like All That Remains in their song "Two Weeks" or DragonForce. "Thalamus" returns to the heaviness, and while it sometimes drones on, it's still good. Its diverse effect keeps the album interesting. The last track in real song form is "Zen", bringing back the speed that was missing in the previous two tracks. The great riffing and drumming is impossible to forget. The absolute final track "Info Dump" is a controversial track worth liking or hating. It's a 12-minute ambient track, but it doesn't affect the perfection at all. If you're patient enough to stick around, you would find that there's more than just feedback, instead being a feedback experiment. It's so cool yet scary! It sounds like the feedback has its own beat. Then the feedback stops then comes back differently, getting louder and more distorted. This is SYL's "Elastic"!!
First Strapping Young Lad (and Sphere) album I've reviewed and already I think this is the best of their tenure! It has heavy anger and emotional power. Alien is probably my new best of 2005. No matter the craziness, you must hear this!
Favorites: "Skesis", "Sh*tstorm", "Love?", "Shine", "Possessions", "Zen"
I came into "Alien" fresh as the only Strapping Young Lad release I'd experienced previously was "City" (which I really enjoyed) but over the last couple of days I've found that I marginally prefer "Alien" & was blown away by just how heavy this record is. It takes no prisoners whatsoever & very few fucks are given along the way. I can understand how it might seem like one huge barrage of aggressive to some listeners but I feel that I'm well equipped to handle that sort of thing due to my extreme metal background. I definitely noticed a Napalm Death influence to many of the more intense riffs which isn't surprising given that Devin's been a long-time fan of the band going way back to his contribution to Steve Vai's "Sex & Religion" album in 1993. The timing makes sense because I was continually reminded of 1992's "Utopia Banished" album.
Devin puts sssoooo much into his vocal performance here. I really enjoy the crazed lunatic vibe on some of this material (see "Shitstorm" for example) & feel it's when he's at his best. His more melodic moments are also high quality though with the chorus of "Love?" actually reminding me a lot of Deftones. Gene Hoglan is an absolute enigma & proves that his feet should be insured for a very hefty sum as he's more machine than human. What a performance! And the production job couldn't have been better suited to the product to be honest. Every track sounds enormously epic here with the listener being virtually assaulted with sound which I would imagine was exactly the outcome that Devin was hoping for. The subtle use of keyboards at key moments is used to great effect & fills out the sound beautifully.
The lone ballad "Two Weeks" is clearly the least effective song on the tracklisting even though I still have time for it's sweeter take on an 80's Pink Floyd vibe as the listener is definitely in need of a short break by that stage. Closing twelve minute industrial noise piece "Info Dump" was certainly a challenge at first though with my initial thoughts being "Oh no, he's decided to give us the impression that the album is longer than it actually is by filling in time with pointless noise" but I'm very pleased to say that it develops over time & ends up leaving the listener with a unique & disturbing atmosphere that I really enjoy. But it's the heavier tracks that really float my boat, particularly when they're matched with some of Devin's more intense screams. Brief opener "Imperial" is nothing short of devastating with the gradual buildup & crescendo of "Thalamus" being a close second. The triple play of "Shitstorm" through to "Shine" is also spectacular!
Despite the fact that most of the highlights reside on the A side for me, I find "Alien" to be a very consistent release overall. In truth, some of Devin's more progressive & melodic moments take me a touch outside of my comfort zone & this (along with the first five minutes of "Info Dump") prevent me from going with a slightly higher rating but the quality here is undeniable. It's an outstanding effort from a highly capable & significantly battle-hardened group of musicians. Whoever selected this album for feature release inclusion really knows his shit & should be heaped with praise for eternity.
For fans of Fear Factory, Ministry & Nailbomb.
