Strapping Young Lad

Wedgewood Rooms - June 2006
Images: © 2006 www.seventhframe.com
Words by Armchair Anarchist

There are many challenges that music journalists face - describing Strapping Young Lad is just one of them. Imagine a trio of beefy yet fairly regular-looking middle-aged metallers. Imagine them churning out thick walls of extremely heavy music, all huge guitar lines and hectic drumming. Now equip them with a frontman who resembles a Klingon without the armour and forehead lumps. Endow this frontman with a strangely humorous and manic stage presence, plus the ability to howl like a banshee and growl like Beelzebub. Make him gurn and goof and mock himself, his band, the audience and the very genre he works in. Make it funny. Make it clever. Make it shake your bowels around with bassy savagery. Got that in your head? You’re still nowhere near it. Like them or loathe them, this band are unique in bringing humour and intelligence to one of the most po-faced scenes there is. Nothing else compares.