Chris Valagao

Chris "The Heathen" Valagao is a heavy metal musician, best known as the front man for Canadian speed/thrash metal band Zimmers Hole. He is of Portuguese and Norwegian heritage.

Background

Valagao is the founding front man (along with Jed Simon and Byron Stroud from Strapping Young Lad and drummer Steve Wheeler) for Canadian speed/thrash metal band Zimmers Hole. He has recorded 3 albums with the band. During his career, Valagao has performed backing vocals on almost all of Devin Townsend's and Strapping Young Lad's albums. During that time he has built a strong friendship with Townsend.

In 2012, Valagao joined traditional heavy metal group West of Hell and released the debut album Spiral Empire. West of Hell followed up with a headlining tour across Canada and New Zealand in support for the album.

Nicknames

During his career, Valagao has adopted several "nicknames", most notably "The Heathen". Other nicknames include:

Discography

Valagao has performed on the following albums.

Zimmers Hole

Zimmers Hole is a Canadian heavy metal band from Vancouver. The band formed in 1991, and features former Strapping Young Lad members Byron Stroud, Jed Simon and Gene Hoglan, along with vocalist Chris Valagao.

History

Bound By Fire

Zimmers Hole began life as a side project for members and friends of Strapping Young Lad. The band's debut album was produced by Devin Townsend and released on his label Hevy Devy Records. Lyrics took inspiration from comedic anecdotes from tours past, backed by middle-of-the-road "metal flying V riffs", usually stolen from Kiss and Morbid Angel. Details of the bizarre back stories for all the songs were provided by Chris Valagao ("'Gospel Sodomy Boy on Blow' is about an asshole called Troy who wouldn't stop doing coke and spouting about Jesus") and posted on the official Strapping Young Lad forums by Tracy Turner around 1999.

Legion of Flames

In 2001, when Strapping Young Lad finished touring, Jed Simon and Byron Stroud had Townsend to produce the second album, Legion of Flames. It was released on Townsend's label Hevy Devy Records. Legion of Flames included song parodies such as "Gender of the Beast" ("Number of the Beast", Iron Maiden), "Sodomanaz" ("Go for a Soda", Kim Mitchell), and a spoof of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" in the song "Evil Robots", with the line "Napster, Napster, where's the cash that I've been after?". The album also contained a cover of Joni Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight", with humorously altered lyrics.

Strapping Young Lad

Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing. By 1997, he had recruited permanent members; this line-up, which consisted of Townsend on vocals and guitar, Jed Simon on guitar, Byron Stroud on bass, and Gene Hoglan on drums, lasted until the band's dissolution.

Containing elements of death metal, thrash metal, black metal, progressive metal and industrial metal, Strapping Young Lad's music was characterized by the use of complex time signatures, 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 bipolar disorder and dark sense of humour were major influences on his songwriting. Townsend was also noted for his eccentric appearance and on-stage behaviour, which greatly contributed to the band's intense live performances.

The Heathen

"The Heathen" is a short story by the American writer Jack London. It was first published in Everybody's Magazine in August 1910, and later included in the collection of stories by London, The Strength of the Strong, published by Macmillan in 1914.

In the story, two people, from different cultural and racial backgrounds, are the only survivors of a ship that encounters a hurricane in the Pacific, and they remain together.

Background

In 1907 London began a voyage across the Pacific Ocean in his ketch the Snark, and visited islands in the south Pacific, concluding the voyage in Sydney, Australia. He wrote about the adventure in his book The Cruise of the Snark. "The Heathen" is set among islands that London visited during that period.

Plot summary

The narrator, a pearl buyer named Charley, is a cabin passenger on a schooner, the Petite Jeanne, sailing from Rangiroa to Tahiti with a Kanaka crew, at the end of the pearling season in the Paumotas. The boat, having eighty-five deck passengers, is overloaded. Several passengers die of smallpox; Charley and the other cabin passengers drink whisky, until it runs out, in the belief that it will kill the smallpox germs.

Devin Townsend

Devin Garret Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has had an extensive career as a solo artist.

After performing in a number of heavy metal bands in high school, Townsend was discovered by a record label in 1993 and was asked to perform lead vocals on Steve Vai's album Sex & Religion. After recording and touring with Vai, Townsend was discouraged by what he found in the music industry, and vented his anger on the solo album Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing released under the pseudonym Strapping Young Lad. He soon assembled a band under the name, and released the critically acclaimed City in 1997. Since then, he has released three more studio albums with Strapping Young Lad, along with solo material released under his own independent record label, HevyDevy Records.

Townsend's solo albums, a diverse mix of hard rock, progressive metal, ambient, and new-age, have featured a varying lineup of supporting musicians. In 2002 he formed the Devin Townsend Band, a dedicated lineup which recorded and toured for two of his solo releases. In 2007, he disbanded both Strapping Young Lad and the Devin Townsend Band, taking a break from touring to spend more time with his family. After a two-year hiatus, he began recording again, and soon announced the formation of the Devin Townsend Project. The project began with a series of four albums, released from 2009 to 2011, each written in a different style, and Townsend continues to record and tour under the new moniker.