Oh how dearly I miss Strapping Young Lad. Their over the top extremity, and of course the ridiculous/hilarious lyrics of the madman Devin Townsend, I just can’t get enough. The announcement from Townsend that SYL would be going on extended hiatus was both shocking and severely disappointing, especially considering their (at the time) recent spike in interest/popularity due to their run on Ozzfest among other things.So not long ago, I catch wind of Zimmers Hole adding Gene Hoglan do their line up, and my interest in peaked – who is Zimmers Hole? Holy shit, it’s SYL minus Devin Townsend, and in his place, a guy that goes by The Heathen – this has got to be good. How had I not heard of them prior to now? So I check their Myspace page, and what I hear is awesome. “1000 Miles of Cock” had me hook, line and sinker – I can appreciate comedy in my metal – it doesn’t have to be serious all the time. I think I may have found a suitable fill in for SYL in their absence.

Now the wait for the new album with Mean Gene on drums is over, and we get When You Were Shouting at the Devil, We Were in League with Satan (WYWS), which by the way, might just be the best album title ever. The Hole may not be Strapping Young Lad, but they share some similarities – SYL’s patented ‘cyber thrashing’ can be heard through out, as well as plenty of gnarly groove, and they inject a good portion of power/traditional metal and some death growls to give them their own feel. The vocals of The Heathen are a bit reminiscent of Heavy Devy, mainly in that they’re unique. He displays a superb range, from ball-clenching highs to more guttural lows, and on a couple occasions, a more black-ish style screeching.

The self titled track opens the album and wastes no time establishing what to expect, arguably the most SYL oriented track on offer and sporting some great lines: “glam rock can suck a cock, it’s strictly for the closet gay”…”Exodus was fucking right, all the poseurs must die!”…”you wish you were one of the ‘Crue’, worship your transvestite gods, my sword will run you through”. By the time the chorus hits the second time around, there’s a delay between ‘league’ and ‘with Satan’ that makes me simultaneously throw my horns in the air head-banging and laughing hysterically at all the ridiculousness.

“We Rule the Fucking Land” and “1312” are more thrash oriented tracks; “Flight of the Knight Bat” leans more power metal, though generally more aggressive than anything you’d typically find in the genre; “Devils Mouth” is another SYL sounding track, though similar at they’re slower, more stripped back and groove laden times; Dethklok’s (Metalocalypse) Nathan Explosion makes guest appearance in “The Vowel Song” in the form of a public service announcement about illiteracy (hilarious!) prior to the actual song; the hilarity continues in “Fista Corpse”, a pounding groove dominates the track about, uh…well refer back to the song title for that one, and continues through “Anonymous Esophagus” with gems like “open mouths across the nation, accepting of my donation”, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg there; “Alright” seems to hit a perfect cross between SYL and power metal; “Hair Doesn’t Grow on Steel” is an excruciatingly funny piss-take on power metal as a whole and album closer “What’s My Name…Evil!” could be the albums heaviest track with it’s doom-y groove and mostly death vocals.

The promo sheet that I got with the disc states “The Hole are as serious about having fun as they are about keeping the integrity of metal intact” – I couldn’t agree more, as this is one hell of a fun metal album that should be checked out by all. Highly recommended.

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