The New Black

by Strapping Young Lad

Overview

As metal practitioners go, unless you start invoking names like GWAR, it doesn't get much more over the top than Strapping Young Lad. On The New Black, chief skull-denter Devin Townsend and company keep up the craziness, doing their best to bust through metal stereotypes while doling out vicious, frenzied slabs of sonic extremism: once you've heard "U Suck," a straight-up assault complete with demon screams and instrumental chaos on someone who sucks, and royally, there can be no mistaking SYL's commitment to rage as an art form. But as it proved on 2005's Alien, this is a quartet capable of heaving its heaviness in fresh directions. Though the bulk of the vocals are given over to predictably menacing growls and banshee screams, snippets of actual singing -- some of it positively Bon Jovi-like -- surface on "Decimator," "Far Beyond Metal," and "Almost Again," and the hypnotic, disc-stealing "Fucker" features a moment of female screech-singing that's as well-timed as it is surprising. It's the genre-weaving that makes the strongest case for SYL's excellence within its frenzied field, though. "Antiproduct," a message song that keeps the curve balls coming, threads a jazzy passage through the punishing stuff, and "Wrong Side"'s stops and starts jerk loyal listeners around with System of a Down-like fits of melodicism. All this, and a classic edge, too: while SYL continue to spread their wings and explore metal's creaking, shrieking boundaries, there are times when The New Black's sound seems not new at all but filched from the '70s -- Bruce Dickinson might be proud. ~ Tammy La Gorce

Product Details

Release Date:	07/02/2021
Label:	Listenable Records
UPC:	3760053845542
Rank:	2655

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Strapping Young Lad   Primary Artist
Lacuna Coil   Primary Artist
The Haunted   Primary Artist
God Forbid   Primary Artist
Arch Enemy   Primary Artist
Behemoth   Primary Artist
Shadows Fall   Primary Artist
Gene Hoglan   Percussion,Drums
Ray Codrington   Trombone
Jed Simon   Guitar
Byron Stroud   Guitar (Bass)
Bif Naked   Vocals
Marnie Mains   Organ (Hammond),Vocals
Deborah Tyzio   Organ (Hammond),Vocals
Dave Young Orchestra   Organ (Hammond),Keyboards,Vocals
Doug Gorkoff   Cello
Devin Townsend   Computers,Guitar,Vocals

Technical Credits

Gene Hoglan   Composer,Drum Editing,Group Member
Mike Fraser   Mixing
Jed Simon   Group Member,Composer
Byron Stroud   Group Member,Composer
Shaun Thingvold   Engineer
Rob Shallcross   Drum Editing,Engineer
UE Nastasi   Mastering
Phil Hinkle   A&R
Omer "Impson" R. Cordell   Photography
Dave Young Orchestra   Vocal Engineer
Devin Townsend   Group Member,Arranger,Composer,Engineer,Producer