1. Strapping Young Lad - City
This is probably the heaviest Heavy Metal album ever recorded. This was the second album released by Devin Townsend as Strapping Young Lad and for this one, instead of playing the instruments himself he put together a band which included the legendary Gene "The Atomic Clock" Hoglan on drums, Byron Stroud on bass and Jed Simon on second guitar. Whilst this album is undoubtedly Heavy Metal it explores all of its sub genres, often in the same song, creating something unique and very scary. Industrial, Death, Thrash and Progressive Metal are stuffed headfirst into a wood chipper and the bloodied remains are presented to us with a meticulous Wall Of Sound production. It features ridiculously complex riffs, preposterously quick blast beats and swathes of keyboards. This is not so much an album as the soundtrack to one man's nervous breakdown. Townsend's struggles with bipolar disorder are laid bare here as is his dark humour. The band only recorded another three albums after this before calling it a day and when one considers what Mr Townsend had to put himself through to record an album I'm glad. One shouldn't have to suffer that much for one's art. They never again reached the dizzying heights exhibited here and Hevy Devy acknowledges this was their best album. If you get the chance you really should check it out: it's heavier than a small star folding in on itself.