Angel advice
| Angel advice | ||||
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| Studio album by Voivod | ||||
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Publication |
November 12, 1991 |
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| Label (s) | MCA Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD, MC |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
42min 29s |
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| occupation | ||||
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Terry Brown |
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Studio (s) |
Metalworks Studios |
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Angel Rat is the sixth studio album by the Canadian metal band Voivod and also the second album for MCA Records . During the recording, bassist Jean-Yves Theriault left the band. The album is Voivod's most commercially successful album and has sold around 150,000 copies.
Emergence
After the success of their major debut Nothingface , Voivod was expected to continue on the path they had taken towards Progressive Metal . Expectations for the album were very high after it became known that Voivod had hired Terry Brown, who had made a name for himself through his work with Rush, as producer . Brown wanted to produce a hit album with Voivod and so guest musicians such as Ivan Doroschuk from Men Without Hats worked as keyboard players on the recordings . Terry Brown's way of working met with little understanding, especially from singer Belanger and bassist Theriault. While Belanger came to terms with the situation, Theriault complained that Voivod had no control over the production of the album. After he had finished recording his bass tracks, producer Brown informed him that he had done his job and had nothing to do with the rest of the production. This struck Theriault as absurd and he left the studio. There were two more meetings with his bandmates afterwards, but an agreement about Theriault's involvement in the mix of the album could not be reached and he left the band. For this reason he is not listed as a band member in the liner notes for the album and is not shown on any of the promotional photos for the album.
Music and lyrics
Angel Rat is viewed as an album that split Voivod's fan base into two camps. Under the influence of grunge and the success of groups like Soundgarden , Voivod oriented itself in the songwriting for the album to the mainstream of the early 1990s. The result was catchy and shorter songs with melodic choruses and slower grooves . The album with its discreet keyboards has a melancholy mood. With the lyrics, the band left the Voivod theme of the previous albums and was inspired by a variety of sources. These included James Gleick's novel Chaos ( Nuage Fractal ), mythological themes ( Golem ) or Irish and Russian folklore ( Angel Rat , The Outcast ), socio-political statements can be found in Best Regards and None of the Above , but also those that have so far been typical of Voivod Topics can be found in pieces such as Clouds in my House or Panorama .
Track list
- Shortwave Intro - 0:25
- Panorama - 3:10
- Clouds in My House - 4:47
- The Prow - 3:30
- Best Regards - 3:52
- Angel Council - 2:52
- Golem - 3:35
- The Outcast - 4:33
- Nuage Fractal - 3:43
- Freedoom - 4:37
- None of the Above - 4:08
reception
With the maximum number of 7 points, Andrea Nieradzik praised the "unusually melodic [e] and in parts very straight [e]" album in the Metal Hammer for its "enormous variety and the sometimes very relaxed feeling", which comes close to a passed "maturity test". Panorama sounds ripe, rocky and unrestrained, The Prow has “a tremendous ease” in addition to “hit potential” and Angel Rat is slow, atmospheric, “reduced to a few essential riffs ” and performed sensitively. The Musikexpress justified its 4 out of 6 possible stars: "The ambitious Melodic Thrashers never sounded more accessible than today."
About a year after its release, in November 1992, the Rock Power Angel Council described it as "terrific". In 1993 Chris Glaub said in Break Out that Nothingface and Angel Rat were "brilliant psychedelic-eccentric outpourings". In Rock Hard in 1996 the album was characterized as "melodic" in a concert review, and in 1997 the elementary statement was that the band had amazed "with catchy, softer pieces and clear vocals".
Greg Prato wrote on the Allmusic Internet platform that the album had no weaknesses, was only just below the class of its predecessor, and therefore the low level of attention it received was incomprehensible. He particularly emphasized the songs Panorama , Clouds in My House , Golem and Angel Rat and gave them 4 out of 5 possible points. Goat, the reviewer of metalreviews.com , also regretted that the song-oriented Angel Rat was underrated. Although it is "mainstream" by Voivod standards, it has retained its typical psychedelic note and is worth exploring. His favorites are: Clouds in My House , The Prow , Twin Dummy , Angel Rat , Golem , The Outcast and Freedoom . He awarded 80 out of 100 points. Ralf from metal-observer.com described Angel Rat as a classic of the 1990s with consistently excellent songs. They are rocky, mature, catchy and enriched with extraordinary guitar playing. The revealing-fragile Angel Rat and Freedoom are "out of this world", while the punky-snotty The Prow and Panorama could liven up any party. His rating: 9 out of 10 points. Sargon the Terrible reviewed the album for metalcrypt.com . It is the most commercial Voivod work, but too wacky for the mainstream audience. On the other hand, it appeared at the wrong time for the metal clientele in the grunge year 1991. It is individual, idiosyncratic, can hardly be described. Instead of thrashy-aggressive it is relaxed-progressive, melodic-catchy, but still unique and strange. Panorama , Clouds in My House , Angel Rat and Golem received special mention in addition to the four pieces from The Outcast to None of the Above that conclude the album and form a unit for him . Overall, Voivod's album, with 4 out of 5 points, is second best after Nothingface .
Self-classification
“[…] Our new album [is] comparable to Nothingface in terms of hardness […]. However, the progressive rock and Pink Floyd elements of Angel Rat were retained, but this time without conveying a moody and depressed mood. "
“I rarely listen to Angel Advice anymore . The previous Nothingface was our most successful album. People expected a similar, spacey-hard release afterwards. We did the opposite because we lacked the will to “harder-louder-faster”. Now I can say that our current record would not have been possible without the Angel Rat outbreak . "
literature
- Jeff Wagner: Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal . Bazillion Point Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9796163-3-4 , pp. 112-114 .
- Michael Barclay, Ian AD Jack, Jason Schneider: Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985–1995 . ECW Press, Toronto 2011, ISBN 978-1-55022-992-9 , pp. 159 f .
Web links
- Angel advice at Allmusic (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ Michael Barclay, Ian AD Jack, Jason Schneider: Have Not Been the Same. P. 160.
- ^ A b Jeff Wagner: Mean Deviation . P. 112.
- ↑ a b c d e Michael Barclay, Ian AD Jack, Jason Schneider: Have Not Been the Same. P. 159.
- ^ A b Jeff Wagner: Mean Deviation . P. 114.
- ^ A b Jeff Wagner: Mean Deviation . P. 113.
- ↑ Andrea Nieradzik: Voivod. Angel advice . In: Metal Hammer . December 1991, p. ? .
- ^ Henning Richter: Voivod. Angel advice . In: Musikexpress . December 1991, Metal, p. 117 .
- ^ Emanuel von Bruck: Proud 2B Loud . In: Rock Power . November 1992, Rock Power Presents, pp. 22nd f .
- ↑ Chris Glaub: Voivod. Advocate of Chaos . In: Break Out . August / September, 1993, p. 21 .
- ↑ Michael Rensen: Voivod, Power of Expression. Hamburg, market hall . In: Rock Hard . No. 104 , Jan 1996, Live Review, pp. 130 f .
- ↑ Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: The power of the machine . In: Rock Hard . No. 124 , September 1997, p. 28 f .
- ^ Greg Prato: Voivod. Angel advice. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved August 9, 2014 .
- ↑ Goat: Voivod - Angel Rat. In: metalreviews.com. August 30, 2010, accessed August 9, 2014 .
- ↑ Ralf: Voivod - Angel advice. In: metal-observer.com. July 10, 2003, accessed May 19, 2014 .
- ↑ Sargon the Terrible: Classic Review: Voivod - Angel Rat. In: metalcrypt.com. April 24, 2003, accessed May 19, 2014 .