So, to make conversation, I'd like to read afew tales of how y'all got hooked on Devy.
I'll start .
In 2005, I was in a second hand cd store belabouring the 'metal' section. Mostly littered with crap like endless rows of off-years Ozzy and Megadeth, Cinderella, White Snake and so forth. Right next to Stryper, I see this shiny black cd. Strapping Young Lad: ALIEN.
I'm like, hello!!.What the 'f' is this? The only thing I knew about Devin was seeing the Relentless video in a bar somewhere, which I thought was kinda cool. So I paid 7 bucks for the most mind blowing metal album I've ever heard !!As soon as it got going I was soooo blown away .... WTF!!!!
I couldn't believe I got this from a second hand store and the thing just came out! Some one must have thrown it in their car audio, crapped themselves from metal over load and just diched it. HHaaahahaha!!Whimp.
The next album I got was Ocean Machine. That was it. I was hooked...I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but Ioved it.
Makes me abit of a newbie compared to some of you but seriously he rekindled my love of hard metal, even at my age .
My hat's off to you Devin Townsend. Very good music.

I saw the Relentless video years and years ago, thought it was interesting. Heard the song again on a Headbangers Ball CD my cousin bought. Pretty much the same thing happened to me about the second hand CD store, except I found the chicken feather album there for about 6 dollars, so I bought it. About a year later or so my friend comes to me saying I need to get the new Strapping Young Lad CD, Alien. I did just that and from there on it was Love! haha

I'd say about a year ago I got into Devin's solo stuff. Sitting in a computers class at school I went to the HevyDevy website and listened to Gaia and thought to myself "wow, if all of his solo stuff sounds similar to this I NEED to get it!" And since then it's been history!

In 2006 i went to the Ozzfest while i was in vacation in orlando florida, mainly because i wanted to see system of a down and this was their last show i think. it was the West palm beach one so i believe it was SYLs last as well(not sure). I had never heared of strapping young lad before but they were 1st on in the morning. i remember seeing devin on stage with his insults and swearing at everyone, this guy is cool haha. then they started playing, i liked what i was hearing but it was abit heavy for me at the time... after ozzfest i saw the SYL videos on youtube and then the devin townsend band vids on youtube and thats how it started, ive loved everything hes made.

Lawrence

(ha, I bet there's similiar thread somewhere)

I don't remember, it was either praise on Dream Theater forums (there was some post with OMG OCEAN MACHINE/TERRIA'S LEGEND every other week at some point) or me buying Soilwork's Natural Born Chaos, reading "produced by Devin Townsend" on the cover and wondering who he is that so many reviewers mention him with respect in their reviews of NBC ("produced by LEGENDARY Devin Townsend").

back in 97, i was playin sum ministry, and this friend o mine sez "dude, i know of a band thats way heavier and faster than ministry, strapping young lad!"

i sez "oh no u dont"

turns out, he was rite, i requested "detox" on this radio show i used to listen to, and bam, i fell in <3 with the devster

I read an interview with Devin about Alien in a magazine. He was talking about how insanely heavy and crazy it was and I thought "I better see for myself that this man isn't lying, he's a fucking lunatic". I downloaded it and listened twice or so.

Then a while later, a local record store went broke and was having a huge sale, up to 70% off. They had Terria and Infinity, both of which I bought only knowing this was the guy from Alien. I got hooked and here we are

I guess it was in 2003, just before the release of the SYL album...i was at a birthday party or something and was talking about extreme music to some dude, i told him i really liked the berzerker because they were so extreme and stuff. he said i bet you like strapping young lad! i was like : who? well when i got home i downloaded"( yes i know, its bad but it was for a good cause ) the SYL album and fell in love instantly. in the following months i got into terria and some of the songs on city...i was a fan since then but i REALLY got into dev and strapping in 2005 or something, bought all of his albums and from then on i turned into a hevy devy fanboy

pig

Over the years I'd read various interviews with him in magazines but I never bothered to check his music out...

Then I bought Ayreons 'The Human Equation' and realised that the best tracks were the ones that had Devin on vocals, these vocals made me feel so much, I just had to check out his other stuff...Terria was my first, thats where my fanboyism began

I've been aware of him for about 10 years after I first heard Sex and Religion, but only started listening to his music after I was recommended The Hummer and Devlab, then bought Ziltoid and explored his back catalogue yada yada yada

Over the years I'd read various interviews with him in magazines but I never bothered to check his music out...

Then I bought Ayreons 'The Human Equation' and realised that the best tracks were the ones that had Devin on vocals, these vocals made me feel so much, I just had to check out his other stuff...Terria was my first, thats where my fanboyism began

Oh man...that one song on The Human Equation with both Devin AND Mikael Akerfeldt...pure bliss! I forget the name of the track...but it's still incredible to have my 2 favorite male vocalists on the same song...

[Octillus]

When I was in my "ALL METAL IS AMAZING" phase in high school, I picked up some SYL, and liked it quite a bit.

Didn't actually become an addiction until I listened to Ocean Machine in one sitting about 2 1/2 years ago.

Over the years I'd read various interviews with him in magazines but I never bothered to check his music out...

Then I bought Ayreons 'The Human Equation' and realised that the best tracks were the ones that had Devin on vocals, these vocals made me feel so much, I just had to check out his other stuff...Terria was my first, thats where my fanboyism began

Oh man...that one song on The Human Equation with both Devin AND Mikael Akerfeldt...pure bliss! I forget the name of the track...but it's still incredible to have my 2 favorite male vocalists on the same song...

Yeh that was the first one that really got me, it's called 'school', pretty epic

Ah thats right! That growl Mikael does, the "you're better off dead" is one of the most evil growls I've ever heard from him!

[JuZ]

Sex and Religion.