Untitled Document

The thirteenth studio album of Voivod is here! After lots of important and drastic changes such as the injury and departure of Eric Forest (vocals, bass), the reunion with former vocalist Denis Belanger and also the join of Jason Newsted of Metallica as a bassist, the album was highly expected from their fan base. Voivod is a band that has gone through many changes during their 20 years career and has given some real masterpiece albums full of pioneering, progression and intelligence. Their latest album “Phobos” was one of them and the press and fans’ reaction was excellent when it was released back in 1997. Therefore, everybody was waiting for the new album to see what was going to happen this time.

“Voivod” is a solid album which features many of the classical elements the band had formed and used in the past. It is probably not one of their masterpieces as they were aforementioned and it is much different than the band’s latest album. I would say its style is closer to the album “Nothingface” of 1989, but with a bit more heavy approach, probably due to the production. Denis “Snake” Belanger sounds like he had never left the band; his voice draws some wonderful pictures on the always clever music and the only negative thing could be focused on the fact that the vocals should be just a little bit lower in the production. Jason “Jasonic” Newsted also seems like he is enjoying a lot his participation in Voivod’s new creation to whom he had been a friend since older times (he has also written the song “M-Body” in “Phobos”). As for the two classical members, Michel “Away” Langevin on the drums and Denis “Piggy” D’ Amour on the guitars, they are inventive and intelligent in their very own unique way, just like always. “Gasmask Revival”, “Blame Us”, “I Don’t Wanna Wake Up”, “Les Cigares Volant”, “Strange And Ironic”… the album is full of really marvelous songs performed with passion and honesty, making the whole recording mandatory for every Voivod fan and for any other metal fan as well who might be willing to discover one of the most important bands in this genre.

Voivod found their way with this album again after all the changes that took place before its creation. It is definitely not one of their pioneering works (although it’s an excellent recording), but we shall keep in mind that it’s not a new band and after all this is just the first step of Voivod’s new mark, with the signs being very positive and promising

KJP / October 2003

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First of all, this live album is the first official one of legendary Voivod after 16 years of discographical presence. It comes 3 years after the release of “Phobos”, which is one of the greatest albums they ever released, rated by many among the top-3 of their whole career. So, can somebody explain me why nothing is included in here from “Phobos”? Voivod had faced an accident that caused to their vocalist Eric Forrest a temporary paralysis and then his departure from the band. This caused the stop of the “Phobos” tour. But I don’t think that this is an excuse for a live album to be released without including songs from their last studio one, especially when it has the quality of “Phobos”. And they already had toured for a while, so there obviously was some live material available. This live album was recorded during the “Negatron” tour of 1996 and more specific, from their performance in Dynamo Open Air Festival of that year and from their show in New York City. But even if we accept this “transgression”, the set-list of this live album is pretty bad and unequal concerning the analogy with their studio albums. Six out of a total of eleven songs are taken from “Negatron”. Nothing appears from the masterpiece “Nothingface”, only one from the other masterpiece “Dimension Hatröss” and nothing from “Killing Technology” (these tree being the “classical trilogy” of the band)! No matter of how good “Negatron” is – and it is indeed very good -, what makes a band ignore their classical albums in such a provoking way?

The live album has an excellent sound in the Dynamo songs, but just a good one in the New York ones. Unfortunately, you can easily recognize the difference of the sound between these two parts. The performance of the band remains at a high level. Voivod as a trio had been working pretty well together on stage and the presence of Forrest was a necessary positive kick towards the band’s appearance. Denis “Piggy” D’ Amour is one of the better and most inventive guitarists in metal and he sounds so in this album and the same goes for Michel “Away” Langevin behind the drum kit. But concerning the crowd, you can hardly listen to any. The best moments in it are the songs “Insect”, “Negatron”, “Tribal Convictions”, “Ravenous Medicine” and “Voivod”. The album ends with an interesting cover to “In League With Satan” of Venom, a band with whom they had a musical similarity in their first two albums. “Lives” is good as a recording, but not at all as a live album release, mainly because of two factors: it contains an ugly set-list and it doesn’t transmit to the listener the necessary feeling of a live album. It’s absolutely worthwhile to have it if you’re a Voivod fanatic, but avoid it in any other case. It could have been an excellent bootleg with an excellent sound from the “Negatron” tour, but it shouldn’t have reached the stores as an official live album from such an awesome band like Voivod.

KJP / March 2004

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