He explained, "I started to see human beings as little lonesome, water based, pink meat life forms pushing air through themselves and making noises that the other little pieces of meat seemed to understand." In December 1997, he checked himself into a mental-health hospital, where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The diagnosis helped him understand where the two sides of his music were coming from; he felt his disorder "gave birth to the two extremes that are Strapping's "City" record and "Ocean Machine: Biomech"." After being discharged from the hospital, Townsend found that "everything just clicked" and he was able to write his third solo album, "Infinity", which he described as "the parent project" of "City" and "Ocean Machine: Biomech", with music influenced by Broadway. Townsend returned to the studio, accompanied by Hoglan, to work on the album, on which Townsend played most of the instruments. "Infinity" was released in October 1998. Later in his career, Townsend has cited "Infinity" as his favorite solo record. With "Infinity", Townsend began to label all albums outside of Strapping Young Lad under his own name, dropping the Ocean Machine moniker, to reduce confusion. He wanted to show that despite the highly varied nature of his projects, they are all simply aspects of his identity. The album "Biomech" was relabeled and redistributed as "Ocean Machine: Biomech", under Townsend's name, to reflect the new arrangement. Townsend's bandmates began to play two sets at their shows, one as Strapping Young Lad, and one as the Devin Townsend Band, playing songs from Townsend's solo albums. Townsend's next project took several years to come to fruition. After the creation of the IR8 demo tape, Townsend and Jason Newsted had begun work on a new project called "Fizzicist", which they described as "heavier than Strapping Young Lad". When the IR8 tape was leaked, Newsted's Metallica bandmates James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich learned of the project. Hetfield was "fucking pissed" that Newsted was playing outside the band, and Newsted was prevented by his bandmates from working on any more side projects, although Townsend would later downplay Metallica's role in Newsted's unavailability. With the project stalled, Townsend instead wrote the album himself, entitling it "Physicist". Townsend assembled his Strapping Young Lad bandmates to record it, the only time this lineup was featured on a Devin Townsend album.