STRAPPING YOUNG LAD — Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (review)

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD — Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing album cover

Album · 1995 · Industrial Metal

3/5 · 2023-07-19
UMUR

"Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian metal act Strapping Young Lad. The album was released through Century Media Records in April 1995. Band founder Devin Townsend formed Strapping Young Lad after having recorded and toured with Steve Vai and subsequently toured with The Wildhearts before getting tired of and angry with the music business. He often felt like he was seen as a product rather than an artist, and he began to resent that. He needed a place to let out some steam and as he had been blown away by Fear Factory´s aggressive, industrial oriented, and heavy technical take on extreme metal, Townsend felt that he had the right ingredients to make something aggressive and unique, by combining the heavy, sharp, and aggressive extreme metal influences from artists like Fear Factory, Machine Head, and Sepultura, with the industrial sounds of artists like Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson.

The 2006 Century Media Records ressue of "Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing" includes a 12-page booklet with extended liner notes by Townsend where he recalls the troubles he had getting a record contract. I found one anekdote particularly entertaining. After Townsend had spend a lot of time recording and sending demos and going to business dinners with Roadrunner Records, his project was rejected by the label. He promtly responded by sending Monte Conner from Roadrunner Records a package full of rocks and a picture of his asshole. Townsend had originally promised Monte Conner that the project he had been working sounded like Type O Negative (who were one of the most successful contemporary artists on the label). The picture of Townsend´s asshole is of course a reference to Peter Steele from Type O Negative flashing his asshole on the original cover artwork for the "The Origin of the Feces" live album. A reference Monte Conner must have picked up immedately. That is some great dark humour in my book. Fully displaying the madman genius of Townsend.

Stylistically it´s pretty hard to explain how the music sounds, but hard edged thrashy/groove thrashy chugging riffing, loads of samples, effects, and sounds, and some often manic sounding vocals are some of the ingredients on this album. The trademark Townsend wall of sound production is very present already on this early discography album. Headphones is a good idea if you want to experience this album and get the most out of it. The tracks feature so many different layers of guitars, synths, effects, vocals, and samples, that as a listener it often feels like you´re being sonically assaulted and your ears are abused. In that respect "Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing" isn´t the most dynamic release out there. But it´s by no means a one-dimensional release either, and Townsend often surprise the listener with for example a melodic part or something else which breaks the furiously energetic and intense core sound of the album.

The quality of the material is a bit up and down and sometimes the tracks sound a bit too much like experiments/sketches of songs and not enough like fully realised compositions. On the other hand those are some very interesting experiments and that counts for something too. The two tracks which open the album titled "S.Y.L." and "In the Rainy Season" are probably the songs on the album which remind me the most of later material by the band. The former is an absolutely brilliant track. The 2006 Century Media reissue of the album includes 4 bonus tracks and the video clip for "S.Y.L.". None of the bonus tracks add much value to the album if you ask me. The cover of the Judas priest song "Exciter" is not among Strapping Young Lad´s finest moments that´s for sure.

"Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing" walks the fine line between madness and genius, crazy noise and brilliant compositions. It´s a very difficult album and it won´t please everyone. All of Strapping Young Lad´s albums have a distinct direction and unique sound, but "Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing" is probably the one which stands out the most, because it´s vastly different from the rest. For better and worse. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

9 months ago
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UMUR wrote:

9 months ago

I´m a huge Townsend fanboy, but that doesn´t mean I enjoy everything he has been involved in, and to my ears this one is one of the weakest releases in his huge discography. I understand it´s place and the time it was released (I was there), so I understand why it sounds like it does...I just don´t enjoy it much.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

9 months ago

I'm totally on the opposite side of the spectrum from the majority with this band. This debut and the 2003 self-titled album are my top SYL releases. I love the other ones as well but these two are incessantly brutal which gets my juices flowing! The last album The New Black is the weakest for me. I much prefer SYL to Devin solo albums.

UMUR wrote:

9 months ago

Yeah not mine by a long shot. This one is my least favorite. I can´t say I listen to it much. I remember when it was released and I had the "S.Y.L." track on a compilation album with various artists, and I really liked that song...unfortunately no other song on the album sounds like it.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

9 months ago

THIS is my favorite album by them. Unrelenting!