Strapping Young Lad
City

THE REVIEW

There will come a time when the earth will be inhabited by unscrupulous people...
People who do not care about your current well-being, but about your future...

There will be a time when the things that you deem important will cease to be so, due to the Dictators of your actions (or rather Reactions), the impalers of your Ego, the anti-vampires who spit the blood and poison that currently flow through your veins...

It will be a world not anarchic but rather fiercely rigid in an unorthodox scheme, where morality is firmly upheld by laws that only care about breaking, eradicating, amassing...

It is the land that the Strapping Young Lad see as fiercely current in the Far East (or Far West?), in the metropolitan-pedopunk-colored/bleaching Japan that was already envisioned by them in 1997, at the time of the release of this piece of black lava in a circular shape spinning in the frantic stereo.
But that's not the case, Japan has nothing to do with it, despite the artwork and the band's statements, the true Middle Earth, where emotions do not pass through the heart but through the backbone and lower abdomen, exists only in the (oppressive) desire for freedom, both sonic and social.

There is no escape, where City passes, perceptions change, starting with the strictly musical ones; it's not Thrash, but something that uses it; it's not grind or industrial, but frighteningly more emotional and furious; there is no growling or screaming, but lucid bile spilled directly into the eustachian tubes!

There is a portrait of Townsend in the CD's case, exuding Napalm energy from every pore...

Let's not classify it, let's avoid comparisons with the mechanical Fear Factory, the disturbing Meshuggah, the Nine Inch Nails, or the eponymous band of the group's genius leader, but let's turn up the heat and put them all in a large pot, then distill until obtaining 39 minutes mostly of devastating metal_core with super melodic spaces, yet others utterly brain-crushing (listen to oh my F*****g god).
From the first listen, we come out rightfully drained, annoyed, with the CD ending up on the shelf of disappointments...
but then with monthly listens, which will become weekly, which will turn into daily, we will be forced into the "rite of plundering good intentions" daily by these madmen!

Who put the drums in the hands of that ogre Hoglan (ex-Death), probably the most imposing (about 200 kg!) "beater" of skins in the metal scene (not brutal though..), who birthed texts and choirs that are not mere acts of revolt typically Hard core, but that tell of events happening around us and that will happen...the soundtrack of Neuromancer or the wicked Dr. Adder.
Devin Townsend's voice is more eclectic than ever, it seems that the disk among distorted and sometimes confused guitars revolves around him, the drumming as already mentioned is a fantastic and galvanizing roll, a true natural stimulant, keeping rhythms sometimes impossible, but it is not cold, mechanical, rather I would define it as "pulsating".
The songs then keep an extremely high medium level, with an ever-growing momentum (shoot yourself the first four in a row!) then slowing down and delivering a MASTERFUL blow on the seventh track (Underneath the waves), my favorite, which starts at a thousand and then unloads a chorus that gets imprinted in your head and doesn’t leave anymore.
The eighth (and then the ninth) track opens with a somewhat "kabuki" keyboard, and is the most "epic" piece in the setup, we find ourselves in the company of young prostitutes in hotel rooms (room 439) at the mercy of businessmen and bored youngsters; another very appreciated round of the CD.

The production is perfectly fitting and recalls that urban atmosphere to perfection, the only flaw, in my view, is in the choice of the fonts (font and size) for the lyrics, illegible!
But which can be remedied in a thousand ways.

What more to say?
Guys, I like the record (and you’ve noticed it!) and if De-baser's purpose is to spread notes by trusting ourselves and our sonic experiences, this will surely be a bit different from the usual, music from a band that does not like to sectorize, music that refuses strict categorizations, whose intent once again is to convey something, not (only) through words, but with emotions. And not least, the supreme purpose, to entertain.