UMUR "SYL" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Canadian extreme metal act Strapping Young Lad. The album was released through Century Media Records in February 2003. It´s the successor to "City" from 1997 and features the same four-piece lineup who recorded the predecessor, although Strapping Young Lad had a longer hiatus between 1999 and 2002. In the intermediate years the other members of the band worked on various other musical projects, while lead vocalist/guitarist Devin Townsend recorded and released a couple of solo albums and worked as a producer for other artists too (including artists like Soilwork and Stuck Mojo). Townsend also struggled with his bipolar disorder and even admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital in early 1998. After being released and taking medication for the disorder, he was able to work again, but continued his substance abuse, which combined with his disorder made his behaviour erratic. The material for "SYL" were written using a more collaborative approach than the preceding releases, which were more or less solely written by Townsend.

Stylistically the material on the album is unmistakably the sound of Strapping Young Lad. A few more death metal influences and not as many industrial metal influences, but other than that this is Strapping Young Lad as we know and love them. It´s often pretty extreme music with thrash, groove, and death metal riffs, powerful fast-paced drumming, and Townsend screaming his lungs out with great passion and conviction. There is so much more to the music on this album than that though. Townsend as always have created a layered and larger than life sound production and has added keyboards/synths, choirs, and electronic effects to the music. His vocals are also very diverse, ranging from screaming, death metal growls, aggressive raw vocals, and melodic clean singing. Townsend is without a doubt one of the most versatile extreme metal vocalist on the scene, and while his performance here isn´t among his most varied and adventurous, he is still leagues ahead of other vocalists in the genre.

"SYL" opens with the short, powerful, and pummeling intro "Dire", before exploding and blowing the listener back in the seat with "Consequence". Strapping Young Lad surely know how to open an album with a statement of intent...and with "Relentless" and "Rape Song" it´s made abundantly clear that that intent is to beat the listener to a pulp with intense sonic violence. "SYL" is in many ways an incredibly extreme album, but the pace is lowered a couple of times during the playing time and tracks like "Aftermath" and "Force Fed" are a little more accessible and mid-paced heavy. Album closer "Bring On the Young" is a slow building, repetitive, and at its climax almost symphonic track.

"SYL" is probably the most stylistically consistent album by Strapping Young Lad. While still unconventional and adventurous, it´s not quite as diverse as the other albums by the band. It´s an angry album, focused a lot on aggression and brutality and it´s certainly Strapping Young Lad at their most dark and heavy. If that´s a good or a bad thing I´ll leave up to the reader to decide, but I personally rank both "City (1996)" and "Alien (2005)" higher and perceive them as more accomplished releases (the two albums bookending "SYL"). "SYL" is still a high quality release though, and as anything else released by Strapping Young Lad, it´s completely unique and doesn´t really sound like anything else on the scene. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

voila_la_scorie Around the end of 2014, I became a very devoted fan of Devin Townsend. While his solo projects and Devin Townsend Band and Devin Townsend Project were what attracted me to his music at first, I absolutely had to have the five Strapping Young Lad albums as well.

This third album in the catalogue was released several years after the highly popular City album. For many fans of the band, City was Strapping Young Lad. The debut was just a warm up. But during the intervening years between City and this self-titled third album, Devin was exploring other styles of muscial self-expression. Naturally, when a new SYL album was announced, fans were eagerly awaiting the release. Many, however, were disappointed as it was not a City II.

While City featured an unbridled aggression, waving a big middle finger at the music industry because of Devin's frustrations with it at the time, Strapping Young Lad was a little more polished, bearing some of the trademarks of Devin's other work. Nevertheless, Devin knew what fans were expecting and many of the songs are brutal auditory assaults with Gene Holgan's pummeling double bass complementing the explosive guitar and Devin's flesh-shredding screaming. The disappointment factor for me is that many of the tracks seem to have been written and recorded with that sole purpose in mind: to be loud and brutal. Of course Devin is an individual of deep thought and sensitive as well, so I have no doubt that there was great thought put into the lyrics. "Rape Song" was intended to express rage against a rapist but was misunderstood by some as condoning rape. Poor Devin had to clear that one up.

There are moments where I feel the brutality and the actual music (the chords, the drumming, the vocal work) do come together to create memorable songs, or at least songs I want to listen again from time to time. My two favourites are "Devour" and "Force Fed", the former a short screamer with a great gang-chanting chorus and the latter bridging both the older SYL and the future sound yet to come.

Of the five SYL albums, this one ranks number four with me. It's good but doesn't have the youthful rage of City nor the intentional rage of Alien, and also doesn't have the variety or daring humour of The New Black. Three stars for being one of the less creative, less intriguing products of Devin Townsend but still good enough to smash skulls.