The New Black

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,[2] 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.[2]

"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".[3] 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".[4] The Japanese version contains "The Long Pig" and the instrumental "C:enter:###".

The New Black was released on July 11, 2006. Having sold more than 4,000 copies during its first week, The New Black reached No. 200 on the Billboard 200 chart,[5] No. 15 on the Top Independent Albums, and No. 8 on the Top Heatseekers charts.[6]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[7]

Stylus Magazine's Cosmo Lee described it as "heavy, catchy, and with no filler",[8] and About.com's Chad Bowar was also positive giving the album four and a half stars out of five, stating that "this is a CD that's dense and heavy, but also has some memorable hooks".[9]

• Devin Townsend – vocals, guitar, production
• Jed Simon – guitar, backing vocals
• Gene Hoglan – drums, percussion
• Byron Stroud – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Will Campagna – keyboards, backing vocals
• Cam Kroetsch (The Almighty Punchdrunk) – guest vocals on "You Suck"
• Oderus Urungus (Gwar) – guest vocals on "Far Beyond Metal"
• Bif Naked – guest vocals on "Fucker"
• Chris Valagao (Zimmers Hole) – backing vocals
• Shaun Thingvold – engineering
• Mike Fraser – mixing
• Ryan Van Poederooyen – drum technician
• Travis Smith – artwork and photography

• The New Black at Century Media Records