Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing

About

Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing is the debut album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on April 4, 1995. Century Media Europe released a remastered version of Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing on June 12, 2006, which includes the video for "S.Y.L.", several bonus track, and a 12-page booklet containing extended liner note. Background: Strapping Young Lad began in 1995 as a solo project of Canadian musician Devin Townsend. Following his work as vocalist on Steve Vai's 1993 album Sex & Religion and it is 1994 tour, Townsend believed he had been a "musical whore", spending "the first five years of career working at the behest of other people". During a brief stint as touring guitarist for The Wildheart, Townsend received a phone call from an A&R representative for Roadrunner Record, expressing an interest in his demos and an intention to sign him. The offer was ultimately rescinded by the head of Roadrunner, who regarded Townsend's recordings as "just noise". He faced further rejection by Relativity Record, the label behind Vai's Sex & Religion, who saw no commercial appeal in his music. Century Media Records subsequently contacted the musician, offering him a contract to "make us some extreme albums". Townsend agreed to a five-album deal with the record label. Following his tour with The Wildheart, Townsend began recording and producing his debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing, under the moniker Strapping Young Lad. According to Townsend, the recording process took "about a week". Embracing The Wildhearts' anarchist approach, "while focusing on dissonance and just being as over-the-top as could", Townsend sang on the record and performed the majority of its instrumental tracks (with the assistance of a drum machine). A few song, however, featured local session musician, including guitarist Jed Simon, Townsend's future band-mate. The chorus of bonus track "Japan" was reused in "The Death of Music" from Ocean Machine. Release and reception: Released on April 4, 1995, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing was not widely recognized in the metal community. The album sold 143 copies in its first six month, but received favorable reviews from the heavy metal pre. It's unusual musical ideas—a synthesis of death, thrash, and industrial metal influences—prompted Andy Stout from Metal Hammer to call it "one of the most disturbing albums you'll hear for a very long time". Neverthele, Townsend has repeatedly expressed his distaste for the recording. He dismissed the album in the liner notes of the record's 2006 reissue, contending that it contained only two great song. He also deemed its production poor in interview, referring to the album as "basically a collection of demos that were remixed". When Century Media advertised the reissue of Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing as the "rebirth of a genre-defying classic", Townsend called it "record company bullshit". .

via Last.fm

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