Strapping Young Lad - Alien

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Genre	Thrash Metal	Devin Townsend	Vocals
Tracks	11	Devin Townsend	Guitar
Runningtime	55 Min.	Jed Simon	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Byron Stroud	Bass
Release	21 March 2005	Gene Hoglan	Drums
Country	Canada	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Fear Factory

Where the hell to begin? This is a serious dose of chaos, confusion and mayhem that attacks me like a ten-ton hammer. Is it thrash? Not really. Well, is it perhaps death, hardcore or industry, or perhaps even progressive metal? Not quite right there either, but if you take some of all the genres mentioned and add a bit of madness, you are pretty close to my perception on Strapping Young Lad. Alien, that is the fourth album from Devin Townsend and his band SYL, surely requires a lots of listening before it starts to sink in, but when you start to see all the layers beneath the storming surface, some genuine and innovative metal comes shining through.

Controlled madness or organised chaos, that was my first impressions of Strapping Young Lad, and those still remain after quite a few listenings to their new album Alien, which also is my first acquaintance with the band. They have a pretty wide spectra, even though it is mostly thrash of the chaotic kind and hardcore it is about, with both hands reaching towards Fear Factory and their industrial metal approach. It is a really heavy and freaked out album that contains some great riffing, giving the connections with death metal, while the general approach is more of a thrash metal basing. It is furthermore progressive and diverse, touching as wide areas like Pink Floyd on through to Cradle Of Filth, while sticking uncompromisingly to thier noisy and partly brutal style which gives them a unique and compact sound.

The guitars shine through delivering leads and solos that give a melodic touch to it that is not the most apparent thing otherwise. Intelligent songwriting for sure, but even though there are lots of melodies hidden on Alien, they get pushed away by the complexity of the songs. It tends to become too much of everything and also too chaotic for me to really get a grip on this. It is like they are pushing the envelope here and driving all to its edge. Partly it's really great and also it is really nice with some innovative moves, but it gets too pretentious, and it is simply too much. What I like most on the album is the straight aggressive thrash attack in We Rise, and that is perhaps because it is the simplest track, generally I'm a big fan of progressive music but it gets to crazy here.

Insanity or genius? Devin might be considered a genius and praised among the SYL fans, but I really believe a bit of insanity helps while you're listening to them, it tends to become a bit too schizophrenic for my taste. But with the way the album gets tied together by Gene Hoglan's (Dark Angel, ex-Death, ex-Testament) amazing drumming, it in a strange way gives the music a constant flow that makes listening a little easier. The beats he is pounding out and the rhythms he creates is surely the great remainder while the songs on the albums differ greatly in quality. Alien is a good album, but it is best swallowed in small doses.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	6	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Thomas