Jed Simon | |
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![]() Simon performing with the Devin Townsend Project at The Retinal Circus 2012 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Jedson Louis Simon |
Born | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada | February 27, 1964
Genres | Thrash metal, death metal, industrial metal, extreme metal |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 1985–present |
Website | legionofflames |
Jedson Louis Simon (born February 27, 1964) is a Canadian guitarist. He was a member of supergroup Scar the Martyr and has been a member of numerous bands, including Front Line Assembly, Strapping Young Lad, Zimmers Hole, Tenet, and Vimic.
Simon was born on February 27, 1964, in Victoria, British Columbia. He gained attention in the metal community with his third speed metal band Armoros, which was founded in 1985. Armoros disbanded in 1989 after two successful demos and an album.
Simon's next band was Caustic Thought, when his career with Byron Stroud began. Simon did three demos with Caustic Thought, and when he left them, he gave the job to Devin Townsend. After Caustic Thought, Simon briefly worked with Townsend on his Noisescapes project, who then left for Los Angeles to play with Steve Vai. In 1995, Townsend asked Simon to join his latest project, Strapping Young Lad (aka SYL), and Jed was a part of SYL until the band's split in 2007. Simon contributed guitars to Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing and also performed as a live member for the tour of the album. Simon also appears in the video for S.Y.L. from the same album.
In 1996, Simon joined Front Line Assembly (FLA for short) on their Hard Wired tour as a touring guitarist (and also percussionist on Plasticity and Gun f.ex.). There was a live album and video done from the tour, which became known as Live Wired (1996). After that, Simon returned with SYL, who achieved even greater success with their second album City (1997) with Chris Valagao Mina.
When Front Line Assembly went on to perform the Re-Wind tour in late 1998, Simon was on board again. In 1999, he also contributed guitars to FLA's studio album Implode. Simon's last tour with FLA was the Implosion tour in the spring of 1999. In 2000, Simon worked on Townsend's Physicist project, which is composed of all four members of SYL, but was considered "too light" by Devin to be an SYL album.
In 2002, SYL released their self-titled album, on which Simon plays virtually all the guitar tracks, giving the album a distinctive, slightly warmer sound than any of Strapping Young Lad's other albums. In 2005 they released Alien, and their final recording, The New Black, was released on July 11, 2006.
He is also the guitarist of Zimmers Hole, which includes fellow Strapping bandmates, Stroud, Gene Hoglan, and Chris Valagao. Zimmers Hole has released three studio albums: Bound by Fire (1997, and which was re-issued in 2003 with extra tracks), Legion of Flames (2001), and When You Were Shouting at the Devil...We Were in League With Satan , which was released on Century Media records on March 11, 2008.
His solo project is Tenet, whose first album, Sovereign, was released on Century Media records in summer 2009. Sovereign was written by Simon over the years leading up to the recording of the album, and features Simon on guitar and his old band mates Stroud on bass and Hoglan on drums, along with Steve Souza (Exodus) on vocals, and Glen Alvelais (Forbidden, Testament, LD50) on lead guitar. In 2010, Simon was the touring guitarist with the band City of Fire, which includes Stroud and Fear Factory lead vocalist Burton C. Bell.
On October 27, 2012, Simon joined Townsend on stage at his Retinal Circus event, held at the Camden Roundhouse in London, where they played the SYL songs "Detox" and "Love?", as well as the Devin Townsend Project songs "Bend it like Bender!" and "Little Pig". From 2013 to 2016, Simon was a member of Scar the Martyr, a new project of Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, as full time lead guitarist alongside Kris Norris. In 2016 the band folded and reformed at Vimic.
In March 2018, Simon was announced as a member of a new band Imonolith featuring former Strapping Young Lad bandmate Byron Stroud, former Devin Townsend Project members Brian Waddell and Ryan Van Poederooyen, and Threat Signal vocalist Jon Howard. Simon would go on to leave Imonolith in October of the same year. [1]
Simon has used ESP guitars for many years. Both he and his Strapping Young Lad bandmate Devin Townsend were endorsed by ESP, until ESP stopped endorsing Townsend. Simon was also endorsed by Bernie Rico Jr. guitars, but he later switched to Jackson Guitars. As of breaking out with Vimic he returned to using ESP.
Devin Garrett Townsend is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also had an extensive solo career and has released a total of 28 albums across all of his projects as of 2022.
Strapping Young Lad (SYL) was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver 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.
Tenet is a heavy metal band formed as a side project by Jed Simon of Strapping Young Lad and Zimmers Hole.
Eugene Victor Hoglan II is an American drummer, acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including use of abstract devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms. Though his playing style is very technically demanding, he retains high accuracy at extreme tempos, earning him the nicknames "The Atomic Clock" and "Human Drum Machine".
Accelerated Evolution is the sixth studio album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend, released in 2003. The album, written and produced by Townsend, was a mix of musical styles from alternative rock to hard rock to progressive metal. Townsend, the lead vocalist and guitarist, assembled a group of Vancouver musicians to perform with him on the album: guitarist Brian Waddell, drummer Ryan Van Poederooyen, bassist Mike Young, and keyboardist Dave Young. This lineup, the Devin Townsend Band, was Townsend's first dedicated lineup for his solo material, and was created as a counterpart to Townsend's extreme metal project Strapping Young Lad.
Byron Stroud is a Canadian bassist. He is the former bassist for metal bands Fear Factory, Imonolith and Strapping Young Lad, current bassist for metal bands City of Fire and Zimmers Hole, and studio bassist for 3 Inches of Blood.
Zimmers Hole is a Canadian heavy metal band from Vancouver. The band formed by the guitarist, singer Chris Valagao Mina in 1991, and features former Strapping Young Lad members Byron Stroud, Jed Simon and Gene Hoglan
Alien is the fourth studio album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on March 22, 2005. The album was written by Devin Townsend and Gene Hoglan over a six-month time period. The album reached No. 32 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and No. 35 on the Top Independent Albums chart.
Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing is the debut studio album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on April 4, 1995. Century Media Europe released a remastered version of the album on June 12, 2006, which includes the video for "S.Y.L.", several bonus tracks, and a 12-page booklet containing extended liner notes.
City is the second studio album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad, released on February 11, 1997. Frontman Devin Townsend assembled a permanent lineup of Strapping Young Lad to record the album, including prolific drummer Gene Hoglan, and Townsend's former bandmates Jed Simon on guitar and Byron Stroud on bass. The album was critically acclaimed, with Revolver naming it one of "the greatest metal albums of all time", and it is widely considered Strapping Young Lad's best work. The album was re-released in 2007 with several bonus tracks and altered cover art.
Strapping Young Lad is the eponymous third album by Canadian heavy metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on February 11, 2003.
Physicist is the fourth solo album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend. The album was released on June 26, 2000, on Townsend's label, HevyDevy Records.
Synchestra is the eighth solo album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend, and the second and final album he recorded with The Devin Townsend Band. The album was released in January 2006 on Townsend's label, HevyDevy Records.
The New Black is the fifth and final studio album by Canadian heavy metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was released on July 11, 2006, debuting at No. 200 on the Billboard charts. A music video was shot for the album's sole single, "Wrong Side", and another video, done in CGI, was made for the non-single song "Almost Again".
No Sleep 'till Bedtime is a live album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. It was recorded live in Melbourne Australia, on October 12, 1997; however, the live tracks presented here are the only ones recorded before the tape ran out. "Japan" and "Centipede" are new studio tracks that were added by the label as a bonus material. The title is a homage to and parody of Motörhead's No Sleep 'til Hammersmith live album.
1994–2006 Chaos Years is a retrospective compilation album from the heavy metal band Strapping Young Lad. The album contains tracks from all of the band's studio albums, as well as a DVD with live footage and music videos. The album had a European release on March 31, 2008.
Chris "The Heathen" Valagao Mina is a Canadian singer, guitarist best known as the frontman for speed/thrash metal band Zimmers Hole. Valagao Mina is accomplished SPFX artist and pyrotechnician for film and television, director and producer of many music videos and a builder of custom motorcycles. He is of Portuguese and Norwegian heritage.
Tour EP is an EP released by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. The EP was sold at live shows as a promo for their then-upcoming self-titled album, Strapping Young Lad. The EP includes alternate mixes of two tracks from Strapping Young Lad, two live tracks and "Oh My Fucking God". Only 2500 copies of Tour EP were pressed.
City of Fire is a Canadian metal band formed in 2008. Members include vocalist Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, bassist Byron Stroud from Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad and Zimmers Hole, and drummer Bob Wagner of Econoline Crush. So far, the band has released two studio albums.