Strapping Young Lad - The New BlackReleased July 11, 2006
Tracklisting:
1. Decimator
2. You Suck
3. Antiproduct
4. Monument
5. Wrong Side
6. Hope
7. Far Beyond Metal
8. Fucker
9. Almost Again
10. Polyphony
11. The New Black
Bonus Tracks:
12. The Long Pig (European Bonus Track)
13. Zodiac (European Bonus Track)
14. C:enter:### (Japanese Bonus Track)Personnel:
Devin Townsend - Vocals, Guitar
Jed Simon - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Byron Stroud - Bass, Backing Vocals
Gene Hoglan - Drums
Additional Personnel:
Will Campagna - Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Chris Valagao - Backing Vocals
Cam Kroetsch - Vocals (You Suck)
Oderus Urungus - Vocals (Far Beyond Metal)
Bif Naked - Vocals (Fucker)
Dev never intended for Strapping Young Lad to be his main project, and after the chaos that was Alien, he was ready for it to be over. But, he still owed Century Media one more album to complete their contract. Shortly after finishing the Devin Townsend Band album Synchestra, he began work on the final SYL album. He wanted to make this album more commercial than past SYL records, while still being true to what SYL was. The result is an album that is more melodic than any past album, and brings back some of the humor from the early early days of SYL.
SYL was slated to play on the Ozzfest tour in 2006, and Century Media told Dev that the album had to be done before the tour began. The New Black was recorded at Profile Studios in Vancouver, with additional recording done at Armoury Studios. The New Black features appearances from Cam Kroetsch on You Suck, fellow Canadian artist Bif Naked on the song Fucker, and the late great Oderus Urungus from GWAR on Far Beyond Metal. TNB was recorded quickly, and was a more collaborative effort than previous album, with Jed and Byron playing a bigger role after not being involved with the writing of Alien.
Decimator contains a callback to Depth Charge from Accelerated Evolution.
Monument would later be referenced in the song Lucky Animals from Epicloud.
Wrong Side as released as a single and a music video was made for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXfnr0pxQQIFar Beyond Metal was written back during the City era.
Fucker was reworked into an instrumental called Catwalk, included in the Contain Us Boxset.
The highlight of the album is the ending trilogy of Almost Again, Polyphony, and The New Black.
A music video was made for Almost Again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwuReRw23_0Polyphony references Judgement from Synchestra.
The New Black was released July 11, 2006, a couple weeks into the Ozzfest tour. As jokey and immature as it is at times, I find The New Black to be a decent album overall. Id rank it in 4th place in the SYL discography. The anger is there, like on every SYL album, but this time its intentionally played up and exaggerated. The way I see it, with every previous SYL album, Dev had something to be angry about. Whether that anger came from past experiences in the music industry, 9/11, fear, paranoia, psychosis, etc. With this album, I see it as him getting over the anger and those past experiences and looking back on it and laughing. It doesnt bother him anymore. Theres nothing to be angry about anymore.
Thats just my take. Its up to you whether or not TNB is a satisfying conclusion to Strapping Young Lad or not.
The band played some headlining shows and other festivals in addition to Ozzfest in 2006.
Dev backstage at Ozzfest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4GpEN71obo Download Festival June 9, 2006:
https://youtu.be/pa1r1WZtYcc Live at Hultsfredsfestivalen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Ba7kOlCE4 In the midst of the Ozzfest tour, Century Media offered Dev the option to renew his record contract, but he was truly done with the band. Strapping Young Lad played their final show August 13th, 2006 in West Palm Beach, Florida, the final show of the Ozzfest tour. Dev had repeated throughout this time that after this album and tour, he was done with SYL. This came as a surprise and a disappointment to the other members. Initially no one else in the band or management took his claims seriously, instead just chalking it up to Dev crying wolf. They didnt believe he would actually end this band that, at the time, was the biggest they had ever been. But Dev had had enough of the mental anguish that went into writing this music and portraying this exaggerated heavy metal frontman night after night after night for years and was ready to move on to the next chapter. His decision to end the band resulted in his estrangement from Jed, Gene, and Byron for some time, but these relationships would eventually heal.
In May of 2007, Dev held a press conference where he debuted his new puppet, Ziltoid the Omniscient. (More on that later
)
At this press conference, he announced the end of Strapping Young Lad as well as the Devin Townsend Band, and his intention to retreat from the public eye to spend more time with his wife and new born son. He still planned to produce other peoples albums, and to write and release music recorded at his home studio, but he had no plans to get back on the road anytime soon. With this announcement, SYL was officially over.
Strapping Young Lad released one last EP before officially calling it quits
Strapping Young Lad - C:enter:### EPReleased April 19, 2007
Tracklisting:
1. C:enter:###
2. Zodiac (Melvins Cover)
3. In the Rainy Season (Live)
4. Underneath the Waves (Live)C:enter:### was released in April of 2007 as a 7 single limited to 500 copies. It contains the titular song, which was a bonus track on some versions of The New Black, as well as their cover of the Melvins song Zodiac, and two live tracks. The title track is a solid instrumental song. The rest of the songs weve heard before.
But wait, there's more...
Strapping Young Lad - 1994-2006: Chaos YearsReleased March 31, 2008
Tracklisting:
1. S.Y.L.
2. In the Rainy Season
3. Velvet Kevorkian
4. All Hail the New Flesh
5. Oh My Fucking God
6. Detox
7. Relentless
8. Rape Song
9. Aftermath
10. Imperial
11. Skeksis
12. Shitstorm
13. Love?
14. You Suck
15. Wrong Side
16. Almost Again
17. Satans Ice Cream TruckHey, I said I was covering EVERYTHING, right? That includes the one "Best Of" compilation in Dev's discography.
Chaos Years was released by Century Media in March of 2008. It contains songs chosen by the band members that have been remastered by Dev. It also came with a DVD that contains live footage of the band, including their complete set at Download Festival 2006, and all of the music videos from their career.