SYL in 2004

city in '98, closely followed by infinity. bought every record after that, both dtb and syl. ('xcept devlab, but i'll fix that)

I thought I would be only one who's first devin record was alien
Strapping young lad was a name which I didn't remembered hearing of but it was still strangely familiar. First "dtb" song was seventh wave. I don't have that album but I never fully downloaded it. I'll propably buy it next.

This is more evenly spread than I thought it would be..

I was a Steve Vai-fan once (haha, really...), but hated the singer on "S&R" so that was the only Vai-record i didn´t buy.

Later on i read a very good review of Terria in a german HiFi-mag, downloaded a few songs (The Fluke, Olives, Mountain) through one of those old-fashioned crappy filesharing-programs (napster?, don´t remember ), didn´t like it, deleted the files... and got infected over a year later by a collegue on the job who told me about Devin Townsend.

So i gave it a second chance, filesharing and internet-connection had been improved so i downloaded the whole Terria, Infinity and Ocean Machine and burnt them on CDs. The first one i put in my CD-Player was Infinity. Truth and Christeen stunned me, Bad Devil blew me away. Finally.

Since then i was addicted to those three albums and bought almost everything from Mr. Townsend. SYL needed some more time. I remember that i at first just couldn´t listen to SYL more than a minute because i physically disliked it. I took two more years to become an SYL-addict, too .

Got the SYL abum on mp3 by a friend of mine in 2004, and listened to it quite a lot. Then we got a LAN up and running at school, and I checked out this one guys music collection. I saw a folder named Strapping Young Lad and copied it. It liked it, but it didn't click. (BTW: This folder consisted of single songs, not numbered or anything. I remember OMFG, Detox, S.Y.L. and Home Nucleonics.)

So, one day in the fall of 2005, after I had moved to where I live now, I was bored. BORED. I went through my playlist, and found SYL there. I cranked up the volume, put on Dire and was in total awe. The first time I heard it was on crappy earplugs, and I hadn't had a chance to listen to it really loud before, so I was really schocked by the heaviness and power. Consequence came on, and I was sold.

I downloaded two torrents with the entire discographies of SYL and Devin, and I'm currently working on getting his stuff for real. I own Alien and City by SYL, and OM and Synchestra of his solo stuff(though I'm still waiting for Synchestra as we speak...).

As someone pointed out earlier in the thread; downloading can indeed be a good thing
oh, and one more thing: Am I the only one here that got into Devin through the chickenfeather record?

I got into SYL/DEvin thanks to the relentless video
All the guys at the digimortal.net forums was always talking about Devin so i decided to download the vid, and i liked it instantly the thing that hooked me was the break in the middle of the song!

And after that i downloaded the Accelerated Evolution album and it became my favorite album then it just went on to Ocean machine then Terria, infinity, City, Alien, etc etc i love it all!

Heard Relentless from SYL in 2003 I suppose. Seems longer than that though.

<snip>I downloaded two torrents with the entire discographies of SYL and Devin, and I'm currently working on getting his stuff for real. I own Alien and City by SYL, and OM and Synchestra of his solo stuff(though I'm still waiting for Synchestra as we speak...).

As someone pointed out earlier in the thread; downloading can indeed be a good thing
oh, and one more thing: Am I the only one here that got into Devin through the chickenfeather record?

I think everyone realizes the power of filesharing to introduce people to new music. But, for example, I never downloaded any of the albums. I bought AE out of curiousity. Never heard a single song on it. Just had heard of this Devin Townsend cat off and on since Sex and Religion. So, I read the reviews on Amazon and bought AE. Loved it. Couldn't wait to get Ocean Machine. Again, never heard any of it. Loved it. I have bought every single DT and SYL album without hearing any of it. Thing is, I couldn't wait to buy them because I wanted to hear them so bad. I spent my money when I got it on them because otherwise I had to keep waiting to get them. I've bought Devin's entire discography in the last 18 months because of this. And, that's the issue with downloading, if you ask me. For most people, once they have the file on their harddrive and in their mp3 player there's no real reason to fork over the money and buy the actual album. Obviously some do buy it, but I'm sure there's money being lost.

Wait. Was that off-topic? Kind of. Sorry mods.

...and, that's the issue with downloading, if you ask me. For most people, once they have the file on their harddrive and in their mp3 player there's no real reason to fork over the money and buy the actual album. Obviously some do buy it, but I'm sure there's money being lost.

I hear ya man. I could go "oh, but if you really a fan, you buy!" but it won't help saying that, 'cause that's not how it is. I know a lot of people that are into music, but the majority gets the stuff by MP3, and it stays that way.

I'm trying to buy every album that means something to me, be it a lot or little. I think the artists deserve my money in return for the experience they have given me by making the music. I must admit, there is a lot of music on my harddrive that I haven't paid for... But I try to buy the stufff that really touches me, as far as my economical status goes. Does that make me... semi-evil? Quasi-good? Ah, what the hell

[EDIT]
Damn, just realized I'm drifting off-topic as well. Sorry.


BTW gurp: The semi-evil part was not a direct question to you, in case you felt I was attacking you/defending myself from you in any way.

Nah, Turge, I feel ya, dawg.

triple jjj and costa were giving city some good coverage on three hours of power... I think it was on friday nights back then... heard a number of tracks and thought if was fucking cool.... fuckin heavy and in a different way.

I used to record the radio show to cassette so I could remember the bands i liked and go find em in the shops.... But on the topic of the last 2 posts... downloading sucks big black dick

First I hear Punky Bruster. Then one day I thought "ya know, that Devin Townsend's guy had cool singing. I wonder how is vocals sound in this 'Strapping Young Lad' I keep hearing about". Then I looked them up on Wikipedia expecting a glam metal band. Instead I found the words "Industrial, melodic, speed, death meta" and I thought OH HOLY FUCK!!!! I went to the website, and was greated with a picture of the band in front of a crazy alien logo. I heard the mp3s, and drove as fast as I could to pick up City and Alien. Then a little while later I picked Ocean Machine, and it just clicked one day. Same with Infinity, but it took longer. The rest is all history

I am STILL!!!! The only man who was introduced by Punky Bruster. How odd

I had been familiar with the name "Strapping Young Lad" for quite some time, but Alien was the first album of theirs that I really gave a listen to. After hearing "Skeksis" on the nightly metal show on the radio, I went out and bought it. The album didn't impress me enough to go out get the other SYL albums, but there was something about Devin that intrigued me. In my mind, I had assumed that his solo stuff would be similar to SYL, but after reading reviews of the albums about how different they were, I decided to check them out. Over the past few months, I've bought Ocean Machine, Terria, Accelerated Evolution and most recently, Synchestra. The first 3 absolutely floored me. I find myself wanting to listen to all 3 at once. There's just something about the tone/atmosphere that is just amazing. I'm trying to break away from them to give Synchestra a chance, but it's hard since I'm still relatively new to Devin's work.

OM!
Heard "Life" on a Rock Hard (German Metal+Rock Megazine) Sampler-CD and it blew me away. Went to the Cd-Store and after i´ve heard "7th Wave" I bought the album without hearing the rest of it. What a Great Experience it was listening to the whole album at once. Till then I consider myself a hardcore-fan (including SYL).