Strapping Young Lad's music was characterized by the use of polyrhythmic guitar riffing and drumming, blast beats and wall of sound production.

The band's musical direction was mainly determined by Townsend, whose battle with mental health and dark sense of humor were major influences on his songwriting.

Townsend disbanded Strapping Young Lad in May 2007, announcing his decision to retreat from public view while continuing to record solo albums.

[1] During a brief stint as touring guitarist for The Wildhearts, Townsend received a phone call from an A&R representative for Roadrunner Records, expressing an interest in his demos and an intention to sign him.

[3] Embracing The Wildhearts' anarchist approach, "while focusing on dissonance and just being as over-the-top as [he] could",[5] Townsend sang on the record and performed the majority of its instrumental tracks (with the assistance of a drum machine).

[9] Townsend recruited a permanent line-up for the second album: Jed Simon on guitar, Byron Stroud on bass, and Gene Hoglan on drums.

praised the album for its heaviness, claiming it sounded like "sticking your head into the jet nozzle of a Stealth Bomber",[11] while Metal Hammer ranked it No.

In the spring of 1997, guitarist and singer Chris Valagao Mina joined Strapping Young Lad to play on the Full international and European tours.

[21] Townsend explained numerous conflicts with Century Media, and his struggle with bipolar disorder (for which he checked himself into a psychiatric hospital in early 1998),[22] contributed to the curtailment of Strapping Young Lad's activities:[23] What happened?

Although Strapping Young Lad was officially on hiatus, they gave occasional live performances, including an appearance on the Foot In Mouth Tour in 2001 with Fear Factory.

Hoglan and Simon also formed a side project called Tenet with Grip Inc. bassist Stuart Carruthers and Interzone frontman Rob Urbinati in early 2002.

[25] For the first time, the album would be a product of collaborative writing; the band wrote "about half" of the material on the 2001 Foot In Mouth Tour, and the rest at home, starting January 2002.

[24][26] After playing a small number of festivals in 2002, Strapping Young Lad entered the studio in September of that year, to record their third album.

[27] The self-titled Strapping Young Lad was released on February 11, 2003, and became the band's first charting album, entering Billboard's Top Heatseekers at No. 97.

[30] Strapping Young Lad differed from City because it was less industrial[31] and more reminiscent of death metal;[32] the humor pervading the previous two albums became more subdued.

[37] Critics praised Townsend's inventiveness and the dynamism of the songs in which "melody and discord meet midway";[38][39] Adrien Begrand of PopMatters wrote that "Strapping Young Lad have raised the bar yet again",[16] while Blabbermouth.net's Krista G. called it one of the best albums of the year.

[41] Townsend explained the experimental noise track "Info Dump" is a reflection on the panicked state of mind that ensued after he stopped taking his medication.

[55] In an interview conducted by Terrorizer in August 2006, Townsend explained why he decided to put the band on hold:[56] At the end of the day, man, I'm just tired, and old, and bald, and fat, and grouchy, and bored.

A career spanning best of album, entitled 1994–2006 Chaos Years, was released on March 31, 2008, with a bonus DVD of live performances and all of the band's music videos.

During his career-retrospective concert The Retinal Circus in October 2012, Townsend introduced Jed Simon on stage and performed two SYL songs, "Love?"

[75] To achieve a chaotic and cacophonic sound the band utilized complex time signatures,[76] polyrhythmic composition,[77] blast beats,[16] sampling, keyboard effects and intricately layered production.

[38] Strapping Young Lad mostly eschewed guitar solos until The New Black, which featured a more heightened emphasis on melody than their previous albums.

[81] Strapping Young Lad drew influence from a wide range of music genres, most prominently, but not exclusively, heavy metal.

Townsend cited, amongst others, Judas Priest, Jane's Addiction, Zoviet France, Grotus, and Frank Zappa as his influences,[41] and also expressed his admiration for Meshuggah on several occasions, calling them "the best metal band on the planet".

[77] Simon and Stroud listed classic hard rock bands, like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Kiss, and old school thrash and death metal bands, like Exodus, Slayer and Morbid Angel among their influences,[82][83] while Hoglan's influences range wildly in style from Stevie Wonder to progressive rock drummers like Neil Peart, Terry Bozzio and Nick Mason.

[89] Strapping Young Lad was known for its energetic live performances, mostly owing to the eccentric appearance and persona of Devin Townsend.

[91][92] Adrian Begrand of PopMatters wrote "Nobody in metal today has the same kind of commanding stage presence as the self-professed Bald Bastard, Devin Townsend", and called Strapping Young Lad "one of the best live bands around".

[93] Townsend was famous for his on-stage antics; he integrated his ironic and tongue-in-cheek humor into live shows and interacted heavily with the audience.

The band was also sarcastic about their own Canadian heritage, they used "Blame Canada", a comedic anti-Canada song from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut as intro music at many concerts in 2003 and 2004.

In 1998, after the release of Infinity, they began performing both Strapping Young Lad and Townsend's solo songs, as two separate sets.