The New Black
| The New Black | ||||
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| Studio album by Strapping Young Lad | ||||
| Released | July 11, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | 2006 | |||
| Genre | Extreme metal, progressive metal, industrial metal, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 42:43 | |||
| Label | Century Media | |||
| Producer | Devin Townsend, Strapping Young Lad | |||
| Strapping Young Lad chronology | ||||
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| Devin Townsend chronology | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
The New Black is the fifth and final album by Canadian heavy metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on July 11, 2006, debuting at No. 200 on the Billboard charts. A music video was shot for the album's sole single, "Wrong Side", and another video, done in CGI, was made for the non-single song "Almost Again".
Century Media imposed a strict deadline on the release date of the album; it was to be ready before the 2006 Ozzfest festival. Despite this, Townsend stated the recording was not rushed, and The New Black became a critical, as well as a commercial, success. It was more melodic than any of the band's previous albums and brought back the debut album's tongue-in-cheek humour.
"Decimator" references "Depth Charge" from Accelerated Evolution. "Far Beyond Metal" is a studio recording of a tour song previously released on No Sleep 'till Bedtime and For Those Aboot to Rock. "Almost Again" emulates the keyboard-heavy ending of "Truth" from Infinity. "Polyphony" shares a riff with "Judgement" from Synchestra. A riff from "Monument" was later used as the bridge riff of "Lucky Animals" on Epicloud. An instrumental version of "Fucker" was released on Contain Us.
A music video was shot in late May to accompany the sole single from the album, "Wrong Side". In June 2006 Strapping Young Lad embarked on a short festival tour of Europe, including performances at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals in Germany, and the Download Festival in England, which was followed by a second stage appearance at Ozzfest in July and August, where they played to some of the largest audiences in their career.
The album comes packaged with a second CD featuring a sampling of various other Century Media artists. The European version contains two bonus tracks: "The Long Pig" and a cover of Melvins' "Zodiac". The Japanese version contains "The Long Pig" and the instrumental "C:enter:###".
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