{"product_id":"city-1","title":"City","description":"Strapping Young Lad includes: Devin Townsend.\u003cbr\u003eAdditional personnel: Gene Hoglan (drums).\u003cbr\u003eRecorded in July 1996.\u003cbr\u003eA sense of humor is something that very few artists in underground metal possess -- and that's precisely why Canadian Devin Townsend and his wall-of-noise industrial-thrash outfit Strapping Young Lad stand out amongst the melee. City is a fine example of Townsend's metal-mad scientist approach (dubbed \"Devy metal\" by affectionate followers): An absolutely manic cyber-grind propelled by the elephant stampede kicked up by drummer extraordinaire Gene Hoglan (ex-Death, Dark Angel), thickened by frenzied, nigh out of control guitar riffs and existing in a cloudy electro-haze of pulverized circuit boards crushed to dust, shot into the atmosphere, and breathed in by all involved parties. So this album's predecessor, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing, was appropriately titled, although City is a smidgen more focused, mature, and, yes, heavy, although Townsend's subsequent solo projects, Ocean Machine, Infinity, Physicist, and Terria, are less overtly metallic, more fully realized, prog-influenced, and ambitious. What makes Strapping Young Lad most compelling isn't the band's capacity for schizoid arrangements, but rather Townsend's realization that the over the top clichés of the metal genre -- which he robustly embraces with a maniacal grin -- are innately absurd. So he trots out irony-packed tunes such as \"Oh My Fucking God,\" \"All Hail the New Flesh,\" and \"AAA\" with such ridiculous bombast and bizarre, borderline non sequitur lyrics (a quick sample: \"Devy in the corner of his teen year\/Born to run away\/Children in the middle with the village idiot\/So he never made the potty grade\" from \"AAA\"), all used to skewer the inherent ludicrousness of not just metal, but life in general. On the surface, City is a noisy excuse to put yourself in a neck brace, but closer inspection will reveal Townsend's mentally depraved genius, his mind weighted down with, um, really heavy things. [A Deluxe Reissue from Century Media was released in 2007.]~ John Serba","brand":"MovieMars","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45477492490527,"sku":"3760053845658","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/7833\/0399\/files\/f05cfe655c1900a8f053f1a7a6f66ee4_a5c03fe4-8503-49c9-a776-492a1dc80e09.jpg?v=1778760844","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemars.com\/products\/city-1","provider":"MovieMars","version":"1.0","type":"link"}