 Townsend designed his two main projects , the aggressive Strapping Young Lad and his more melodic solo material , as counterparts . Strapping Young Lad 's music was a diverse mix of extreme metal genres : death metal , thrash metal , black metal and industrial metal . Townsend 's solo material blends many genres and influences , with elements of atmospheric ambient music , hard rock and progressive rock , along with pop metal and arena rock . He described it as " a highly orchestrated type of expansive music based in hard rock and heavy metal . <unk> and produced with a large amount of ambient elements . " Despite Strapping Young Lad 's greater mainstream acceptance , Townsend identifies more with his solo material , and has never intended Strapping Young Lad to be the focus of his music . 
