"What's black and blue and doesn't like sex?"

Devin Townsend rocks male pattern baldness like no one else. Devin's the vocalist and guitarist for Strapping Young Lad, Canada's reminder that they have pissed off people too. SYL is responsible for releasing, City, an album that is arguably the most aggressive recording ever produced.

they've got a new album out called Alien. I've had it in my headphones pretty consistently for the last couple weeks. it's not for the faint of heart. this is some serious, skull cracking metal that practically demands that you jump around the room and smash furniture. I'm not sure it lives up to City, but i was also lukewarm about their last, self-titled, album but it eventually grew on me.

here's "Love?" off Alien. the basic philosophy behind the album seems to be "more of everything". more guitars, more drums, more nonsensical screaming, and more melody hidden in the storm.

Devin basically started out his musical career as the hired vocalist for Steve Vai's Sex and Religion album, sort of a strange attempt for a virtuoso guitar instrumentalist to work with a full band. then he went off on his own, did SYL and a bunch of more melodic solo albums. with the possible exception of that Steve Vai album (and otherwise i love Vai), pretty much everything he's done i've really loved.

where SYL makes you want to break things, his solo projects have an amazing soothing quality that makes you want to just turn off the lights and lie on your back listening. they're still loud, have lots of distortion and some screaming so it's a little counterintuitive, but somehow it works.

eg, here's "Sunday Afternoon" off Accelerated Evolution.

Devin is also a really strange and funny guy in general. the title of this post comes from a joke that he told to the audience at an SYL show i was at. he said his mother had called him up on the phone earlier that day to tell it to him. the answer, of course, is "I don't know but he's locked in the trunk of my car."