Archive for the ‘Voivod’ Category

Anger Management: Voivod/At The Gates

Wednesday, June 17th, 2015

Every fortnight, we check in with all things heavy on RTRFM’s Critical Mass show.

Originally released on Record Store Day and set to be first of three Voivod split releases this year (the other two being with Napalm Death and Corrections House), this tasty little treat is a reminder of how creative and innovative Voivod can be within the thrash metal spectrum.

“We Are Connected” is a 7-minute opus that fuses thrash with prog influences and psychedelica. It is still mind boggling how Daniel ‘Chewy’ Mongrain can effortlessly emulate original (the sadly deceased) guitarist Denis ‘Piggy’ D’Amour’s totally unique playing style and sound. It’s thrash metal but it’s also melodic, atonal, heavy, skronky and bizarre. Hopefully this will appear on a new album. This is also the debut of new bassist Dominique “Rocky” Laroche who fits in just fine.

The At The Gates contribution “Language Of The Dead” was originally released last year as a bonus track on certain editions of last years At War With Reality album. It’s a solid if slightly unremarkable track that has a nice solo and some clean guitar near the end. I guess bonus/unreleased tracks are just that, a nice curiosity left off the main album for a reason.

Critical Mass airs every Wednesday from 9PM (GMT+8) on RTR FM 92.1 in Perth, Australia.

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Anger Management: Voivod

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

In a new, regular column, we check in with all things heavy on RTRFM’s Critical Mass show.

“Selling out” is a term that used to get thrown about liberally in the heavy metal scene. By definition selling out is ” the act of compromising one’s perceived principles for economic gain” but in the metal world it meant anything form signing to a major label, changing sound, appearance or even ‘slowing down’. Most of the ‘big’ name metal bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s have copped this term at one point or another (Metallica, Slayer, Celtic Frost, Testament etc).

One band that never really got tarnished with that brush is Canadian prog-thrashers Voivod. After 30 years, a few line-up shuffles and the tragic death of guitarist “Piggy” (Denis D’Amour) in 2005 the band is still producing heavy, challenging and interesting music. True, the band have evolved from the scrappy thrash beginnings of War And Pain (1984) and Rrröööaaarrr (1986) through the eerie/discordant riffing of Killing Technology (1987) and Dimension Hatröss (1988) and even gone into the prog leaning left field with the albums Angel Rat (1991) and The Outer Limits (1993) but the band have always delivered something credible, heavy and different.

2013’s Target Earth is the first album to feature new guitarist “Chewy” (Daniel Mongrain) and is an impressive, fresh showing of technical, discordant and unearthly space themed thrash/prog. Lead single “Mechanical Mind” leans towards the late 80’s period with its snarling vocals and weird spaced out riffing. Special mention must be made for its so bad it’s AWESOME cover art.

Voivod last toured Australia in 2000, bypassing Perth. Soundwave anyone?

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