Canadian avant garde act continue the rock progression.
Although having never quite broken through to the mainstream in their twenty year plus career (Although 1989's “Nothingface” came close), long running Québec (Canada) based act Voivod have earned a reputation as one of the metal scene's more experimental (At times avant-garde) and different sounding progressive/alternative metal hybrid acts on the metal scene, which in turn has had a profound influence over a number of artists throughout the years. After a somewhat difficult stage of their career with bassist/vocalist Eric Forrest fronting the band (Who, along with guitarist Denis 'Piggy' D'Amour and drummer Michel 'Away' Langevin, managed to produce two full length albums and a live album), vocalist Denis 'Snake' Bélanger announced his return to the group in 2001, along with the addition of ex-Metallica bassist Jason 'Jasonic' Newsted, with 2003's Voivod album, giving the band some well overdue attention.
Three years have since passed, and while Voivod continued work on their long awaited follow up album, tragedy struck when D'Amour finally succumb to colon cancer (Which he was diagnosed with two years prior) in August 2005. Prior to his death, D'Amour managed to record enough material for two albums on his laptop, with the remainder of the band (Along with co-producer Glen Robinson) faced with the challenging task of bringing D'Amour posthumous vision to life.
Voivod's eleventh studio release “Katorz” doesn't stray too far from the direction the band last left off with Voivod, with all of the album's ten cuts relying heavily on melody (Which first started to appear on 1991's “Angel Rat”), all the while pushing ahead with their forward thinking progressive trademark sound. The riff led “The Getaway” (Lyrically based around the war in Iraq) is a fantastic opener that showcases D'Amour unique approach to his six strings, while Bélanger is in great form, with his performance injecting a slight punk vibe into proceedings.
The crawling “Dognation” and “After All” are classic latter day Voivod sounding tracks with their fractured tempos and Bélanger's monotone snarl, while the infectiously rocking “Mr. Clean”, the politically minded “Odds & Frauds” (Which, like Nirvana's “Come As You Are”, reminds me Killing Joke's “Eighties”) and the distorted “Silly Clones” effectively capture Voivod's split alternative/progressive/melodic sound best. The driving “Red My Mind” (Which is the album highlight), the metallic “No Angel” and the anthem based “The X-Stream” all add a touch more aggression to the album, leaving the rhythmic “Polaroids” (And the uncredited last minute of acoustic manipulation) to finish things up.
Given the difficulty in putting together the album (The absence of D'Amour, and the challenge set down for Robinson in ensuring that he sound like he was there), “Katorz” is another strong album from Voivod, and a more than worthy follow up to their self-titled effort of three years ago.
For more information on Voivod, check out - https://www.facebook.com/Voivod.
© Justin Donnelly.
