By Jim Shea

Make no mistake about it-Devin Townsend is a genius. Straight from Canada, Strapping Young Lad returns gracefully with their newest album, Alien, which will please not only returning Strapping Young Lad fans, but new ones as well.

Alien is simply a heavy metal feast of insane riffs, mechanical drums, and fully structured songs. To begin, you have maniacal tracks such as “Shine” and “We Ride” that will get your aural senses an overdrive. More importantly, the songwriting in Alien definitely meets expectations for any music fan who listens to metal regularly.

“Shitstorm” is one of the band’s most insane songs to date because of the ever-changing rhythms and the frightfully intense lyrics and vocal delivery. If the title of this song suggests anything, it’s that you could possibly have a mean case of a bowel movement while listening to this song.

As mentioned, guitarist and vocalist Devin Townsend is the brains behind Strapping Young Lad. Along with the brilliant guitar playing, Townsend’s lyrics and singing blend together in perfect harmony. In this case, the two mix together in perfect “madness.”

Besides Townsend, the real strength of Strapping Young Lad comes from their drummer, Gene Holgan. According to a press release from the band, Holgan only took up to three days to lay down the drum tracks for Alien and the results are simply “out of this world.” The duo of Townsend and Holgan is what makes Alien’s riffs and rhythm section match so well for your listening pleasure.

Unfortunately, Alien cannot be called a flawless record as the last track on the album, “Info Dump,” will have most people scratching their heads in confusion. The band originally planned to include a cover of Tom Jones’ classic “What’s New Pussycat?” on Alien, but was pulled at the last minute for unknown reasons. Surely, Alien could have used that cover instead of just random noise.

You do not need to second guess yourself that Strapping Young Lad’s Alien will be both an immediate success as well as one of the best albums of the year. After listening to this album, you will not find it crazy to consider Strapping Young Lad’s insanity to be “genius.”