Review of Strapping Young Lad - SYL

The word chaos and Strapping Young Lad have gone hand in hand for quite sometime with the quintessence of SYL quite easily explained as actual controlled confusion. Sick riffs of monstrous proportions pooled with excessive drumming of extreme dedication seep ruin yet amongst it all contained within the realm of intelligible composition. Hardened aggression once again leads the way as Devin and company rear their ugly head after 6 years of SYL on the back burner. With a sound as large as the planet itself SYL beat you senseless with a resonance that actually leaves bruises when listening. Impact and more fucking impact forge gullies of pain and mass hallucination as the machine rolls right the fuck over you, my neck hurts in ten different places just writing this. Powerful is an understatement as you gasp for air as the barrage of cruelty smacks you with the ultimate pain of salvation. With a production that bleeds Millennium SYL’s self released entity of doom will and cannot be denied, wipe that fucking corpse paint off your face for a moment and realize that SYL does have the chops and will deliver the goods no matter how black your bitter soul my be. Taken back from the get go the song Dire and intro to the chaotic burst of kismet entitled Consequence fully sets the tone for the monstrosity soon to ensue. With track 3 and personal favorite Relentless you’re quickly punished for your sins as the “hevy” literally contorts your face into a grimace so metal your friends may not even recognize you all the while knowing this is your last chance for mercy. With metal spewing forth underlined with an utter vengeance of severity track 4, Rape Song blasts you with a shard of crunch layered with the hectic undertone of kill the wrong doer, you have now went to far and will be punished for your sins. When Aftermath and Devour kick in your exhaustion is apparent and concentration a thing of the past as the onslaught pursues to wreak havoc and steal rotten souls. Now even after countless listens tracks 7, 8 and 9, Last Minute, Force Fed and Dirt Pride are still a blur because each and every time my perception is always numbed at this point due do the merciless assault of cadence I just endured. Easy solution you say… just start the album at track 7, hmmm easier said then done my friends. Would you like me to betray the madness on the first half of this album, how could I be so cruel? Track ten and mood shifter, Bring on the Young takes the album out with a somber mid paced crunch-o-matic ending leaving you truly befuddled if this blistering experience really did just happen. I usually use the word epic for a concept album or even a lengthy tune encounter but without a doubt in this reviewer’s mind this album is epic in every sense of the word. Bottom Line: Strapping Young Lad’s latest offering is not to be taken lightly, it demands your complete attention and deserves nothing less. This is not an album you throw in and walk away only to idly tune in an out. From a creation standpoint I am not quite sure how you dub the malay of fucking maelstrom but one thing is for certain this is metal of perseverance. The album contains so many facets of metal combined into one solidified counterstrike that to put your finger on the sound in a whole is ultimately impossible. However this is metal of the Millennium that much I can guarantee.

Release Details

Strapping Young Lad

SYL

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