Voivod

Since the middle of the 1980s, Voivod from northern Quebec have developed a singular sonic character that has exerted worldwide influence. Fluctuations in personnel never dulled their iconoclastic yet constantly mutating approach, which blends death and thrash metal with dissonant prog and hard rock, propelled by jazzy riffs, irregular and rapidly changing time signatures, homemade sound effects, and frenetic, booming drums. Their lyrics draw from dystopian and science-fiction imagery, political commentary, and sharp observations of society. The group made its first international appearance on Metal Blade via 1984’s War & Pain, providing an early indication of the rough-hewn, metamorphic range of sounds that crystallized on 1986’s Rrröööaaarrr and 1987’s Killing Technology. 1989’s Nothingface achieved their greatest commercial breakthrough and entered the American charts, while 1991’s Angel Rat solidified their standing around the globe. 2001’s self-titled release featured former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. Voivod received a Juno for 2019’s The Wake. The quartet resurfaced with Synchro Anarchy in 2022, and the next year they issued Morgöth Tales to mark their 40th anniversary.

Voivod originated in 1982 in Jonquière, Quebec (now Saguenay, Quebec), roughly 450 kilometers north of Montreal. Its founding members comprised guitarist Denis “Piggy” D’Amour, drummer Michel “Away” Langevin, vocalist Denis “Snake” Belanger, and bassist Jean-Yves “Blacky” Theriault. Strongly shaped by the rise of hardcore punk, ’70s prog rock, and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Voivod aimed to construct an entirely distinctive sound. Toward that goal they assembled a recognizable strain of heavy music whose lyrics mirrored the contemporary Cold War climate, post-apocalyptic fiction, and science fiction. Their independently released debut cassette, Anachronism, contained 22 renditions of songs by Venom, Motörhead (their two primary inspirations), Judas Priest, Budgie, and additional acts. They issued War & Pain next, their 1984 Metal Blade debut. It displayed Langevin’s cover artwork, reinforcing their identity—the drummer has supplied the artwork for every subsequent album. Self-produced, the record supplied a raw, lo-fi entry point into the band’s multifaceted early conception of heaviness.

Voivod incorporated more thrash-driven material on 1986’s Rrröööaaarrr. They reached maturity on 1987’s Killing Technology, where they demonstrated how swiftly, fiercely, and intricately they could perform, thereby establishing an early template for technical death metal. The album retained its thrashcore foundation yet expanded outward to incorporate prog elements through Piggy’s strikingly dissonant syncopated guitar style and Belanger’s raw, punk-inflected vocals. Although underground outlets praised the band’s originality and intensity, the mainstream rock press, preoccupied with that era’s hair-metal trend, responded with scorn—and years passed before critical consensus shifted. 1988’s Dimension Hatröss introduced the first major structural shift in their sound. The rhythm section supplied richer, frequently syncopated grooves that moved away from speed-and-thrash conventions; those elements appeared only to release tension built by Piggy’s jazz-inflected guitar work, which fused lead and rhythm roles in unprecedented fashion. Their compositions were compact yet fragmented, filled with digressions, introductions, interludes, and abrupt changes that demanded close attention. A provocative statement, the album ranks among the group’s strongest achievements, the first to display every facet of their complexity, and a precursor to twenty-first-century prog metal.

Voivod moved to MCA for 1989’s Nothingface. They had refined their signature hybrid style through countless live performances, yielding the most commercially successful album of their career, driven by a video for their version of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” (which received rotation on MTV’s Headbangers Ball) and a headline tour that included two acts destined to reshape rock in the early ’90s, Soundgarden and Faith No More.

Instead of building on the commercial momentum of the prior release, 1991’s Angel Rat became one of the band’s most perplexing records. The album set aside thrash, speed, and, for the most part, prog. In their place the musicians pursued a more direct rock-oriented exploration of garage and post-punk that helped shape alternative metal. Listeners and the independent press initially met the album with bewilderment and occasional animosity. Repeated plays, however, led most to reconsider. Despite its artistic value, Angel Rat’s inability to replicate Nothingface’s sales prompted MCA intervention and internal friction that resulted in Blacky’s exit; the band then entered a hiatus while searching for a replacement bassist.

Following an extended search they enlisted session bassist Pierre St. Jean and began writing and tracking 1993’s The Outer Limits for Geffen Records.

The album presented the band’s most expansive production to date, emphasizing the densely layered textures of Piggy’s guitars alongside the propulsive, groove-heavy rhythm section. The most striking advance, though, lay in the clarity of Belanger’s outstanding vocal performance. While most tracks followed the hard-rock-with-prog direction established on Angel Rat, the music felt more dynamic and less sterile. The set included another Pink Floyd cover, “The Nile Song,” and the intricate seventeen-minute “Jack the Luminous,” which remains one of the band’s most elaborate pieces. After completing a support tour, however, vocalist Belanger also departed Voivod.

Belanger’s exit initiated a difficult stretch that encompassed loss, recovery, and eventual renewal. By the mid-’90s Voivod had reduced to a trio—newcomer Eric Forrest handled both vocals and bass—producing 1995’s Negatron, an intensely dark, industrial-tinged record, and 1997’s severe, abrasive, dissonant, doom-laden Phobos, which earned stronger reviews and sales than its predecessor and closed with a powerful cover of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man.” The odds-and-ends collection Kronik and the live album Lives appeared in 2000.

Forrest left Voivod in early 2001, and the remaining members considered disbanding. Later that year the group reconvened with Belanger returning on vocals and ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted joining the lineup. This quartet delivered the self-titled Voivod album in 2003, which drew mixed notices.

Following the tour for that record, D’Amour began composing new material in earnest. The band planned recording sessions for spring and summer 2005. In June he received a colon-cancer diagnosis. After arranging a standard operation, complications arose and physicians determined the cancer had metastasized, ruling out surgery. D’Amour entered a coma in the palliative-care unit of a Montreal hospital on August 25, 2005. He passed away the next day in the presence of family, friends, and bandmates.

On his deathbed D’Amour guided his bandmates on completing his contributions to the forthcoming Katorz, which appeared in 2006. It received favorable notices for its rootsier hard-rock/death-metal/post-punk synthesis developed with Newsted.

Piggy had also left behind numerous songs and arrangements on his laptop. In 2009 Voivod drew on those demos, guitar parts, and arrangements to assemble Infini, co-produced with Glenn Robinson; every original guitar part from Piggy was incorporated without editing, re-recording, or overdubbing. The album was intended as Voivod’s last. The band toured Europe, Japan, and North America as a farewell, with Martyr’s Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain on guitar, a friend and admirer of D’Amour. The tour also marked the return of Jean-Yves Theriault on bass. A 2009 performance at Montreal’s Club Soda was captured and later issued as Warriors of Ice on Sonic Unyon Metal in 2011.

Voivod ultimately continued. Mongrain became D’Amour’s permanent successor, and the band released its thirteenth studio album, Target Earth, in January 2013. The single “Kluskap O’Kom” followed, accompanied by an international tour. After the tour concluded in 2014, Blacky exited once more; he was succeeded by Dominique “Rocky” Laroche.

Voivod spent the next year touring to integrate their new bassist. In 2015 they released two split singles: “We Are Connected” b/w “Language of the Dead” with At the Gates, and “Forever Mountain” b/w “Phonetics for the Stupefied” with Napalm Death. Those two tracks, a widely praised cover of Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine,” and two additional songs formed the Post Society EP, issued by Century Media in February 2016. Two years later the full-length The Wake arrived. Recorded and mixed by Francis Perron at Canada’s RadicArt Recording Studio, it combined futuristic prog/thrash metal with mutant psychedelia and featured a string quartet. The album earned widespread critical praise and commercial success. Numerous metal writers likened it to the trilogy of Killing Technology, Dimension Hatröss, and Nothingface. The Canadian music industry honored Voivod with a Juno Award for Heavy Metal Album of the Year. The following year Century Media released Lost Machine: Live, captured in Quebec City during the 2019 support tour for The Wake and drawing material from throughout the band’s history. Despite pandemic-related restrictions, Voivod spent much of the second half of 2021 in the studio, with Perron producing, mixing, and mastering Synchro Anarchy, completed in February 2022.

July 2023 brought the release of Morgöth Tales. Produced by the band and recorded and mixed by Perron at RadicArt Recording Studio, the album marked the group’s 40th anniversary as the current lineup re-recorded less-obvious selections from their catalog (1984–2003) alongside one new track, the title song.