Voivod

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Voivod
Voivod at Masters of Rock (2009)
Voivod at Masters of Rock (2009)
General information
Genre (s) Thrash metal , progressive metal
founding 1982
Website www.voivod.com
Current occupation
singing
 Denis "Snake" Belanger (1983–1995, from 2002)
bass
 Dominic "Rocky" Laroche (from 2014)
Drums
 Michel "Away" Langevin
guitar
 Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (from 2008)
former members
Vocals, bass
 Eric Forrest (1995-2002)
bass
 Jason Newsted (2002-2009)
guitar
 Denis "Piggy" D'Amour († 2005)
bass
 Jean-Yves "Blacky" Theriault (until 1991, 2009-2014)
Session musician
bass
 Pierre St. Jean on The Outer Limits

Voivod is a Canadian metal - band . The musical direction varied over time between Thrash Metal and Progressive Metal with influences from Industrial and Electro . Due to the use of technology topics such as nanotechnology or virtual reality and the gloomy end-time scenarios in their texts, Voivod are often assigned to cyberpunk .

The band name is occasionally written Voi Vod , VoiVod or Voïvod .

history

The early years

Voivod (1986)

The band was formed in November 1982 in Jonquière, Canada (province of Québec , now part of Saguenay) by school friends Michel “Away” Langevin (drums), Jean-Yves “Blacky” Theriault (bass) and Denis “Piggy” D'Amour (guitar ) founded. At the beginning of 1983, singer Denis "Snake" Belanger completed the first line-up. The musicians were francophone , which is why they had to learn how to write texts in English. Michel Langevin had translated songs by The Beatles , The Rolling Stones and Kiss during his school days . The texts of Pink Floyd and Van der Graaf Generator aroused his interest in the authors of the Black Romantic period , u. a. the English author Lord Byron .

In 1983 the band appeared several times as the opening act for Exciter . The first demo Anachronism , released in mid-1983, was recorded during one of these live performances and mostly contained cover versions . At the beginning of 1984, To the Death was the first demo, which consisted almost entirely of original compositions. The following demo, Morgoth Invasion, ranks Ian Christe among the ten most important demos of the tape trading scene of the 1980s. Even at this early stage, Voivod was known in the underground and sold more than a thousand demos. Their releases were reviewed in fanzines and the band's name appeared on thank you lists on other bands' records and demos. Brian Slagel, founder and owner of the independent label Metal Blade , became aware of Voivod. After the band contributed the piece Condemned to the Gallows to the Metal Massacre V sampler, they received a recording contract for an album. In mid-1984 Voivod released the debut album War and Pain on Metal Blade.

In November 1985 the band performed alongside Celtic Frost , Possessed , Destruction and Nasty Savage at the World War III Festival in Montreal in front of several thousand spectators.

Shortly afterwards, the band signed a record deal with the German label Noise Records . In 1986 the second album Rrröööaaarrr was released. This was followed by tours with Celtic Frost and Running Wild . In an interview on the 1987 album Killing Technology , Michel Langevin first described the band's style as "Space Metal". Also in 1987, the band released a single titled Cockroaches (Engl., Cockroaches '). The title track is about the fact that cockroaches are supposed to be the only living things that can survive a nuclear war . Michel Langevin came up with the idea for the song because of the large number of cockroaches in the Montreal apartment that the band members were living in at the time.

After a tour with Possessed and Deathrow , Dimension Hatröss was released in 1988 . Shortly afterwards, Denis D'Amour was diagnosed with a tumor that was successfully fought with chemotherapy. The subsequent tour took the band through North America. In the USA they played with Soundgarden and Faith No More , in Canada as the opening act for Rush . The performances in Europe planned for late 1989 and early 1990, however, were postponed several times and finally canceled by the record company due to financial problems.

The progressive years

Denis Belanger at Gods of Metal 2009

After separating from Noise Records, the band was signed by MCA Records and received the highest budget in the band's history for the next release. The result was the fifth studio album Nothingface (1989), with which Voivod developed further from Thrash Metal to more straightforward and progressive sounds. The album was also the most successful in the band's history, reaching number 114 on the US album charts . During the preparatory work for the successor Angel Rat , there were musical differences between bassist Jean-Yves Theriault and the rest of the band in 1991. After the recording, Theriault left Voivod and was replaced by changing session bassists. This was followed by the studio albums Angel Rat and The Outer Limits , the title of which pays homage to the television series of the same name from the 1960s. After the subsequent tour, singer Denis Belanger, suffering from depression, left the band in 1995. The record contract with MCA Records was not renewed. Drummer Michel Langevin then also wanted to leave the band and pursue his main job as a computer graphic artist. After the Ramones spontaneously dedicated a song to the band at a concert in Montreal, Langevin and D'Amour decided to continue Voivod.

At a concert in Toronto , Voivod's manager met singer and bassist Eric Forrest. After a jam session with Langevin and D'Amour, Forrest joined the band. According to Langevin, Forrest brought the band back to the realities of the 1990s with his fresh ideas. After Voivod was able to sign a record deal with Hypnotic Records, the band changed their musical direction. She combined the Thrash Metal of the early releases of the 1980s with progressive elements and influences from the industrial . Around 75,000 units of the Negatron , published in 1995, were sold worldwide. Released in 1997, Phobos was reminiscent of a modern variant of the space rock band Hawkwind with its electronically influenced sound .

“The title is intended to express fear and forlornness. Phobos is one of the two moons that orbit Mars - and the one that I think is the more beautiful. This moon, scientists say, is doomed to crash into Mars like a meteor in the distant future. With the album title we want to express the feelings that Phobos would have if he lived and knew what would happen to him one day. "

- Away

Jason Newsted (then still Metallica ) contributed a title to the album with M-Body . The text for DNA came from post-industrial artist Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell . The band also worked with Ivan Doroschuk from the Canadian pop band Men Without Hats . He helped with the electronic sound effects on Phobos and had already written the lyrics for Nanoman on the Negatron album . Michel Langevin described the album as a tribute to the "hardcore fans ... who come to our concerts year after year and have remained loyal to us despite all the trends". He called it "the strongest, musically most difficult album so far" by the band, which fits best in the "Space-Core drawer".

In 1998 Kronik appeared , which contained live recordings and previously unreleased studio recordings as well as remixes . For the live album Voivod Lives , the band set up the possibility to vote on the best songs on their website. Only the recordings of the shows in Eastern Europe could not be considered due to poor quality, as no overdubs were to be used. In August 1998 the tour van overturned on the way to Wacken Open Air . Singer and bassist Eric Forrest was seriously injured in the accident and fell into a coma for nine months . After it was determined that his brain had not suffered any damage, a recovery process began that lasted several months. In late 1999, Forrest appeared again with the band for the first time. During his recovery, Forrest was represented in the studio by ex- Metallica bassist Jason Newsted .

Back to the roots

Jean-Yves Theriault at Gods of Metal 2009
Dan Mongrain at Gods of Metal 2009

Eric Forrest's departure should not have had anything to do with the accident or the later entry of former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. In a 2008 interview, Forrest stated that he had not left Voivod in an argument. Forrest also denied that his health insurance had sued the band for the serious accident and that this led to his expulsion. Commenting on his motivation for joining Voivod, Newsted said:

“I'm about the same age as the other band members and I've always counted VOIVOD among my favorite bands. We also had a lot of similar experiences with the music business. So I just asked if they could introduce me as a band member. We're all having a great time now writing our metal songs together, in a common space. In contrast to previous experiences that I have gained, this is real and very close. "

- Jason Newsted

In addition to Newsted, who used the pseudonym "Jasonic", singer Denis Belanger returned to the band in 2002. The band switched to the Canadian label Chophouse, in which Newsted was financially involved. Under the working title The Multiverse , the album was recorded in this line-up, which was released in 2003 as Voivod . With him, the band resumed the progressive-melodic style of the early 90s.

The former singer and bassist Eric Forrest founded the band E-Force, which continued the style of the Voivod albums with his participation. The band's first album was also released in 2003 and was called Evil Forces .

Guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour died on August 26, 2005 - a few months after the diagnosis - of colon cancer . Shortly before his death, Piggy had given his friend Michel Langevin the passwords to his laptop, which was used for home recording , so that the band could access his musical ideas. A fully composed and arranged album was on the computer. It was published on July 28, 2006 under the title Katorz . Katorz stands for French quatorze 'fourteen'. Including the best-of release and Kronik , it is the 14th album. Using the song fragments still stored on the laptop, the remaining members Langevin and Belanger wanted to release an album and then dissolve Voivod. The publication planned for 2007 has been postponed several times.

In 2008 Langevin received requests for several concerts: with Ozzy Osbourne in Calgary , with Judas Priest in Montreal and two appearances with Testament in Tokyo . The band had not played live since 2003 and Jason Newsted was no longer interested in concert appearances. Therefore Langevin asked the original bassist Jean-Yves Theriault to take over the bass for these performances. Supplemented by guitarist Dan Mongrain from Martyr , the band took advantage of the offers. Other shows followed in Russia and South America .

New beginning

The last fragments left by Denis D'Amour were used on the album Infini (French 'infinite'), which was released on June 12, 2009. Jason Newsted still played the bass parts, but Theriault is back in the band's permanent cast. In summer 2009 the band did a festival tour and played a. a. at Masters of Rock , Gods of Metal and Jarometalli in Oulu . In November 2009 the DVD Tatsumaki Voivod was released in Japan 2008 , which contains a recording of a concert by the group on September 20, 2008 in Japan. On December 12, 2009 Voivod played the first headlining concert in ten years in Montreal, the recordings were released in mid-2011 as a live album under the title Warriors of Ice . In 2010 Voivod played at various festivals, such as the Wacken Open Air and the Brutal Assault Festival in the Czech Republic , in January 2011 the group performed at the 70000 Tons of Metal festival .

Originally the release of the first studio album was planned for 2011, the songwriting of which the late guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour was no longer involved. The recordings only took place in the course of 2012, the album Target Earth was released on January 18, 2013. In early 2012, Alternative Tentacles re-released the 1984 demo To the Death . In July 2014 bassist Jean-Yves Theriault left Voivod for personal reasons, he was replaced by Dominic Laroche. The EP Post Society was released in February 2016 .

Musical development

Excerpt from the intro to Tornado (from the album Killing Technology , 1986) with rhythm change; first part (bars 1–8) on a reduced scale . Audio sample ? / iAudio file / audio sample

The early musical influences of Voivod included Motörhead , Iron Maiden , Judas Priest and Venom , "on the other hand you could discover trace elements of English hardcore punk [...], especially from discharge and broken bones ". The first album was still classic 1980s Thrash Metal, which Greg Prato of Allmusic compared to Metallica's Kill 'Em All and notes that the band with the dry production and straight guitar riffs is still a long way from the progressive influences of later albums. For Götz Kühnemund from Rock Hard , the band crosses the boundaries to punk more than once . The band continued this style on their second album Rrröööaaarrr . With the third album Killing Technology , the typical and respected sound for the band emerged. The songwriting became more sophisticated and the first influences from progressive rock from bands like Pink Floyd and King Crimson became apparent . With the album Dimension Hatröss , released two years later, this development reached its temporary climax. It was the first album on which Voivod presented their "experimental metal" from start to finish. For the first time, computer effects such as samples and synthesizers found their way into the music. According to Away, Dimension Hatröss influenced bands like Meshuggah , while the Queensrÿche album Operation: Mindcrime influenced melodic bands like Dream Theater ; Voivod is probably responsible for progressive elements in extreme metal bands.

The major label debut Nothingface , released in 1989, is regarded as the high point of the musical development , with which the band was able to perfect the mixture of Thrash Metal and Progressive Rock and present their most commercially successful album. The singing, which is consistently melodic for the first time, is emphasized by singer Denis Belanger, who completely dispensed with screams . The band continued this direction with the following albums. On Angel advice , which was produced by Terry Brown (including Rush), the elements of Thrash Metal were pushed back further. The album is characterized as a mix of Pink Floyd and Rush with a dash of heavy metal. In this phase, Holger Stratmann from Rock Hard calls the band “an intellectual, weird hard rock band that places more value on compact interplay and original song material than on brute force”. In retrospect, Michel Langevin described the album as a necessary step in the musical development of the band, without which an album like Phobos would never have existed.

Riffs from Pre-Ignition from the album Nothingface with Tritoni and rhythmic change from 5/4 to 6/8 time. Audio sample ? / iAudio file / audio sample

With the departure of Denis Belanger and the inclusion of singer and bassist Eric Forrest, the band was attested to a return to their Thrash Metal roots. On the first album with Forrest, the Negatron released in 1995, “weird riffs, a cold atmosphere and sick vocals full of hatred and suffering” dominated, as they were last heard on Dimension Hatröss . This return to Thrash Metal, which was continued with the successor Phobos , was seen as a step backwards in the musical development of the band despite the influences from industrial .

With the departure of Eric Forrest, the return of Denis Belanger and the engagement of Jason Newsted as bassist, the band changed their musical direction again. Thom Jurek from Allmusic sees Voivod , released in 2003, as a definitive departure from Thrash Metal and notes that Voivod is now one of the best hard rock bands on the planet. Released in 2006, Katorz is characterized as being more straightforward and catchy. With the 2009 album Infini Voivod is now moving in the intersection of Thrash Metal from Dimension Hatröss , the progressive influences on Nothingface and the catchiness of Negatron .

In the foreground on all disks is the guitar work of Denis "Piggy" D'Amour, which innovative and jazzy thrash metal - riffs with psychedelic Zerreffekten knew. These dissonant chords based on Tritoni are also called "Piggy Chords". Since the 1986 album Killing Technology , the band has used electronic effects to enhance their sound . These found their maximum expression on Phobos . Drummer Michel Langevin, who works full-time in a computer company and is considered very keen to experiment with modern technology, was responsible for the effects.

When asked by rock-hard editor Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann, "Which bands are musically or conceptually so close to VOIVOD that you would recommend them to a VOIVOD fan?" Away said, it depends on the phase; in relation to the 1980s he named Fear Factory , Meshuggah and Mastodon , as well as the Norwegian band Virus , who played with Voivod in Oslo; the musicians are "very crazy Voivodians".

The "Voivod"

A fictional character named "Voivod" is a central component of the band image . According to a 1986 interview, Michel Langevin had read as a teenager about a people of barbarians in Northern Europe who called themselves “Voivods”. Another version has it that a human machine appeared to him in nightmares as a child after he almost lost his life in a car accident as a child. The name "Voivod" comes from the legend of Vlad III. Drăculea , model of the fictional character Count Dracula . This carried the title Voivod .

The first five albums represent an overall concept around the history of the "Voivod". He is portrayed as a "post-nuclear vampire". On War and Pain he comes to life after a nuclear war and gains strength in the course of further nuclear wars on Rrröööaaarrr , where he mutates into "Korgüll the Exterminator". After setting off into space on Killing Technology , Dimension Hatröss describes the experiences of the Voivod in a microcosm he created, on Nothingface he retreats into his deepest interior. The story of the Voivod was only continued on Phobos and thus came to a preliminary conclusion:

“Once, in the 'War And Pain' era, the Voivod was a human being that was shaped by its environment. Later the Voivod exchanged his guardian role for that of an aggressor. He waged wars, fought and destroyed, was manipulated - and ultimately turned more and more into a machine. Meat and cells gave way to inorganic material, calculation repressed feelings, humanity was replaced by unscrupulous precision. "

- Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann

The story of the Voivod ended with the 2003 album Voivod . He goes to war to find his end there.

Cyberpunk image

Texts and artworks by the band deal with content from science fiction , mainly from cyberpunk . Inspired by William Gibson's novels such as the Neuromancer trilogy , their publications, mostly concept albums , depict a gloomy future in which machines have taken power and computers control fate, but not humans or a god. On the album Killing Technology , the future is portrayed as a world dominated by artificial beings, in which children already become robots and no human can grow old. With a wide variety of artistic and textual means, Voivod reflects "the oppressive atmosphere of an increasingly technological world".

Elements of cyberpunk can be found in the lyrics as well as on the record covers , for which drummer Michel Langevin was responsible from the start. The Voivod is usually represented as a cyborg ( cybernetic organism) that moves in an artificial universe. Initially inspired by the end-of-time scenarios shown in films like Conan the Barbarian and Blade Runner , Langevin developed his own style from 1989 when he switched from hand drawings to computer graphics and computer animation . The band logo also varied from album to album. Langevin sells his artworks as posters, t-shirts and tattoos , has already designed layouts for Danko Jones and The Haunted and designed the cover for Dave Grohl's album Probot . Michel exhibits his pictures (e.g. at the Roadburn Festival 2012 in the Netherlands), and the official band biography Worlds Away - Voivod and the art of Michel Langevin ( Red Drache Edition , 2012) by Martin Popoff is consistently with the art of Michel Langevin illustrated.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Nothingface
  US 114 02/17/1990 (16 weeks)
Target Earth
  DE 72 02/01/2013 (1 week)
The wake
  DE 26th 09/28/2018 (1 week)
  CH 51 09/30/2018 (1 week)

Studio albums

Live albums

  • Voivod Lives (2000, Metal Blade)
  • Warriors of Ice (2011, Indica Records )

Compilations

  • Best of Voivod (1992, Futurist Records)
  • Kronik (1998, Hypnotic Records), contained remixes, previously unreleased tracks and some live recordings


Singles, EPs

  • Scared To Scream / Cockroaches (1987, EP)
  • Post Society (2016, EP)

Music videos

Soundtracks

literature

  • Holger Stratmann (Ed.): RockHard Encyclopedia. 700 of the most interesting rock bands from the last 30 years . Rock Hard, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , p. 453 f .
  • 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. 154-160 .
  • Jeff Wagner: Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal . Bazillion Points Books, 2010, pp. 104-116 .

Web links

Commons : Voivod  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Voivod . Piggy's death . In: Metal Hammer , October 2005, p. 10.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Hanno Kress: Voivod: The last one bites the ant . In: RockHard magazine . No. 101 .
  3. ↑ Christa Titus: The End is Just Beginning . In: Billboard Magazine . December 16, 2006, p. 14 .
  4. ↑ Glenn Salter: Interview with Voivod. Metallic Assault Fanzine, 1985, accessed November 27, 2012 .
  5. ^ Ian Christe: Sound of the Beast. The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal . ItBooks, 2003, ISBN 978-0-380-81127-4 , pp. 114 .
  6. ^ Ian Christe: Sound of the Beast. The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal . ItBooks, 2003, ISBN 978-0-380-81127-4 , pp. 93 .
  7. ^ Ian Christe: Sound of the Beast. The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal . ItBooks, 2003, ISBN 978-0-380-81127-4 , pp. 142 .
  8. ^ Monte Connor: Interview with Away. Metal Mania, October 1987, accessed November 27, 2012 .
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g Holger Stratmann (Ed.): RockHard Enzyklopädie . RockHard Verlag, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , p. 454 .
  10. ↑ Voivod: Starwars for the senses. (No longer available online.) Intro Online, October 1995, archived from the original on June 25, 2009 ; Retrieved June 18, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.intro.de
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Voivod: The power of the machine . In: RockHard magazine . No. 124 .
  12. ↑ Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Voivod: The last chapter of the human machine . In: RockHard magazine . No. 155 .
  13. ↑ a b c d Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Voivod: The machine dies in war . In: RockHard magazine . No. 188 .
  14. ^ E-Force and life after Voivod. brutalism.com, December 2008, accessed November 27, 2012 .
  15. ^ News archive of August 16, 2001. (No longer available online.) Blabbermouth.net, archived from the original on October 1, 2007 ; accessed on June 21, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.roadrunnerrecords.com
  16. ↑ a b Patrick Schmidt: Voivod: The legacy of a legend . In: Rock Hard . No. 231 .
  17. ↑ a b c Danko Jones: Interview with Michel "Away" Langevin . In: RockHard magazine . No. 266 .
  18. ↑ Alexandra Michels: Voivod: Dominic Laroche replaces Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault. In: Rock Hard Online. July 14, 2014, accessed July 14, 2014 .
  19. ↑ a b Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Voivod . Threesome . In: Rock Hard , No. 309, February 2013, p. 24.
  20. ^ Greg Prato: War and Pain - Voivod. AllMusic, accessed October 29, 2009 .
  21. ↑ Götz Kühnemund: Review of "War and Pain" . In: Rock Hard . No. 8 .
  22. ↑ a b Holger Stratmann (Ed.): RockHard Enzyklopädie . RockHard Verlag, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , p. 453 .
  23. ^ Greg Prato: Dimension Hatröss - Voivod. AllMusic, accessed October 29, 2009 .
  24. ^ Greg Prato: Angel Council - Voivod. AllMusic, accessed October 29, 2009 .
  25. ↑ Holger Stratmann: Review of "Angel Rat" . In: Rock Hard . No. 55 .
  26. ↑ Holger Stratmann: Review of "Negatron" . In: Rock Hard . No. 100 .
  27. ↑ Thom Jurek: Voivod - Voivod. AllMusic, accessed October 29, 2009 .
  28. ↑ Thorsten Gürntke: Voivod: Katorz. Baby Blue Pages , accessed October 29, 2009 .
  29. ↑ Michael Rensen: Review of "Infini" . In: Rock Hard . No. 266 .
  30. ^ Greg Prato: Voivod's Denis D'Amour . In: Billboard Magazine . September 10, 2005.
  31. ↑ Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Voivod . Threesome . In: Rock Hard , No. 309, February 2013, p. 25.
  32. ↑ a b 1986 Metal Mania magazine interview. Metal Mania, 1986, accessed November 27, 2012 .
  33. ↑ Jimmie E. Cain: Bram Stoker and Russophobia . McFarland, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7864-2407-8 , pp. 183 .
  34. ^ Ray Broadus Browne, Marshall William Fishwick: Preview 2001+: popular culture studies in the future . Popular Press, 1995, pp. 166 f .
  35. ^ Piero Scaruffi : A History of Rock Music: 1951–2000 . iUniverse, 2003, p. 274 f .
  36. ↑ Buffo: Classic: Voivod - Dimension Hatröss . In: Rock Hard . No. 269 , p. 100 .
  37. ↑ Sources for chart placements: DE / CH / US , accessed on February 1, 2013.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 6, 2009 .