City is the second studio album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad, released on February 11, 1997. Frontman Devin Townsend assembled a permanent lineup of Strapping Young Lad to record the album, including prolific drummer Gene Hoglan, and Townsend's former bandmates Jed Simon on guitar and Byron Stroud on bass. The album was critically acclaimed, with Revolver naming it one of "the greatest metal albums of all time", The album was written about the city of Los Angeles,
City was remastered and re-released in 2007, and included several unreleased tracks, as well as a Japanese bonus track and the video for "Detox". The album was re-released in 2012, and includes a CD version of For Those Aboot to Rock: Live at the Commodore as a bonus disc. Teddy Möller (credited as "Septic Ted") from Loch Vostok appears as a guest saxophonist on the joke-track "Headrhoid".
Bonus track "Centipede" is featured on all versions of No Sleep 'till Bedtime, and samples a percussion loop from "Happiness in Slavery" by Nine Inch Nails.
Reception
City received highly positive reviews. Kerrang! praised the album for its heaviness, claiming it sounded like "sticking your head into the jet nozzle of a Stealth Bomber", while Metal Hammer ranked it No. 13 on its "Top 20 Albums of 1997" list and also included it in another list released in 2020 and containing what they considered to be the top 10 albums of that year. The album gained a cult following and a loyal fan base for the band. and critics alike.
In 2000, Terrorizer listed the album as one of the "100 Most Important Albums of the Nineties"; the magazine's readers' poll also ranked it at number 30 on the 100 best albums of the decade. In 2002, the album was No. 45 on Revolver magazine's "69 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time" list, and was on their "Must Have Metal Albums" list in 2005. Townsend himself stated City "is the real Strapping record. That's the ultimate one out of all of them". City had sold over 9,000 copies in the United States by 2002. The song "Oh My Fucking God" was later covered by fellow Canadian extreme metal band Cryptopsy, for a compilation album by Century Media.
Track listing
Personnel
Strapping Young Lad
- Devin Townsend – guitars, vocals
- Jed Simon – guitars
- Byron Stroud – bass
- Gene Hoglan – drums, additional drum arrangements on "Oh My Fucking God"
Additional musicians
- Chris Valagao Mina – guitars, vocals
- Tanya Evans – vocals
The Cruxfrog Choir
- Val (Chris Valagao Mina)
- Stoolie B. Flames (Byron Stroud)
- The Tower
- Pete "this beer reminds me of the beaches in Portugal" Maia
Additional personnel
- Devin Townsend – production, mix engineering, song composition, management
- Daniel Bergstrand – audio (Drums and reference tracks) engineering, final mix.
- Matteo Caratozzolo – audio (overdubs and hell) engineering, Red Stripe Studios Burnaby BC
- Danne the Manne – additional production
- Mercello Gomes – assistant engineering
- Steve Good – assistant engineering
- The Tower – second recording engineering
- Steve Good – studio coordination
- MC2 – editing
- Lulu Devine – editing
- Adrian White – additional drum arrangements on "AAA"
- Strapping Young Lad – additional arrangements
- Masa Noda – photography
- Dan Collins – photography