(2003 release)
Okay, well a few weeks ago three tracks off the upcoming Voivod CD "The Multiverse" (release date: March 4th) were leaked. I have since been listening to them; I've been holding off writing this review of them because I had hoped that like previous Voivod releases, it would grow on me and take time to fully absorb it. As it turns out, my suspicions were correct.
You see, I am a huge Voivod fan, but was not always. The first album I heard was "War and Pain" when it was new. I remember not liking it at all; in fact, I more accurately hated it. But, at the time, I was a relatively immature metal guy and Voivod was far from straight-forward. Time goes by, and "Killing Technology" comes out. Now this album upon first listen was confusing; there were parts that I instantly loved, and there were parts that left me just as annoyed and confused as most of the previous album. But, after a few weeks, I could not stop listening to it. KT grew on me, and is still to this day one of my favorite albums. After gaining this understanding of Voivod, I revisited "Rrroooaaarrr!!!..." and discovered many great tracks on there. I grew to love that. From that moment on it was all about getting everything Voivod ever released. Even the more Motorhead-esque "War and Pain" is a classic for me. But from KT on, things grew strange. Voivod had, to that point, always been a "metal" band; very heavy, yet very unique. They were not for everyone. Yet the next album "Dimension Hatross" would blur the lines of genre; they became unclassifiable. Snake's vocals were the first obvious difference; he was "singing" more rather than yelling. I wasn't sure what to make of this album at first; but again, it grew on me very quickly and now rivals and at times eclipses KT for me as their best. After DH came "Nothingface", complete with a Pink Floyd cover. The sound changed drastically for this album - it became very clean, and the vocals even more singing-like. It took this album much longer to grow on me, but I do like it. The albums that came after this one, however, lead me to completely abandon Voivod for dead. They were very "radio-friendly" to be kind. It angered me so much that a band that was so great had "sank" to whatever this was. They were not the same. Apparently, they finally figured this out when their bass player and singer quit the band. There was a long period of silence. Then, Voivod surprised the community with the release of "Negatron", with a new bass player/singer. Believe me, skepticism abounded. Yet this album was a huge surprise, and a very pleasant one! It was extremely heavy, and the vocals were great! Gone was the singing, gone were the radio-friendly songs, and back was the nigh-industrial sounding metal of Voivod! Then two more albums, "Kronik" (mostly remixes and live stuff) and "Phobos" come along with this new member. To be sure, "Phobos" was much more experimental than the more straight-forward "Negatron", especially in the area of sound/production, but it was still a great album. Their Pink Floyd influences were obvious, but it remained very heavy. Then, a tragic touring accident nearly claimed the life of their new find (and person that I attribute to helping put them back on the map) Eric. He was rendered incapable of ever touring again thanks to major back injuries. The community wondered what would now become of this "new" Voivod that had shown such promise.
The answer was not long in coming.
Jason Newsted, recently escaped from Metallica, had agreed to play bass for them on a few shows, and amazingly enough Snake had returned for these shows!! This was major news for all long-time Voivod fans, as his very unique voice is what seperated them from many others from the beginning. Plus, with the "new" Voivod, they wouldn't possibly let Snake back into the band to play radio-type songs, would they? They had gotten such acclaim for their last two/three albums. Needless to say, there was much apprehension around the circuit.
Then word was out that Newsted and Snake were in the band permanantly, and recording began on their new album. Newsted kept an online diary during this recording (as mentioned here) and kept talking about how this was going to be the best Voivod ever, and that Snake was "back" to form. Expectations rose.
Which finally leads me to these three songs:
- Gasmask Revival - Ok, here's a track that's clearly more for the radio/new fans. A heavy groove-riff graces the verses, and throughout the song that trademark Voivod dissonance is missing, along with any hint at double-bass drumming. But, I have to say that it is catchy, and you eventually find yourself humming/singing along. In fact, it's a great driving tune. But any indication of Voivod's past is lost here.
- Rebel Robot - Ah, from the first note of this song you say to yourself this is reminiscent of classic Voivod. Great moving riff, Piggy's trademark nigh-noise insanity in the riffs, doulbe-bass drumming - it's all there.
- We Carry On - Another "upbeat" track, along the lines of Gasmask Revival. Another possible "single" I'm guessing. But this one is not quite as "happy" as Gasmask. In fact, I'd say that this track is Newsted's best of the three; he demonstrates that he can in fact still play good bass. He's even got some backing vox here too.
But, as my memory returned, I recalled how the other albums took some time getting used to, and I remembered that we had not heard Snake singing for over a decade. So I re-listened. And listened again, over and over. After four listens, I listened not because I felt like I needed more convincing, but because I liked the tracks. Yes folks, they are truly classic Voivod in that sense - they get better the more you listen to them. Yes, there are some "singles" here in these three tracks, but a song like "Rebel Robot" leaves me hungry to hear the rest of the album, and the other two tracks are certainly leaps and bounds better than those albums that we, as Voivod fans, would rather forget.me, somewhere else wrote:i gotta tell ya, i'm the biggest voivod fan i know - been part of the iron gang since the first demos - and i did not see this coming. in fact, the way jason was talking about this recording in their daily diaries, he made it sound like snake was truly back in top form. but this....this is no idication of that.
this is the most frustrating band; they give us the likes of killing technology, dimension hatross, then the flags go up with nothingface, then the horribly radio wanna be rock for two albums, then the apparent rediscovery of themselves courtesy of eric for three great fucking albums, then they put out a "best of" THAT WAS CHOSEN BY THE FANS which should have told them something but apparently they didn't listen because now we have this.....*sigh* i hate to say it, but crap. i was really looking forward to this. to this day, the voivod show i saw in chicago on the KT tour with kreator on the PTK tour is one of the best i've ever seen - ever. and now.....this.
*sigh*
and as for the thinking that maybe these are just the "radio friendly tracks" or singles or whatever, since when has voivod ever mixed styles on an album? their albums are all different, yet consistent within themselves musically and sonically.
Overall, I give these songs a 4/5 rating. The one thing that I feel is most important that I have noticed on these tracks is the fact that these guys are having fun playing together again; how much they enjoy playing off of each other easily permiates the music, and it's contagious.
Looking forward to March 4th,
TC
Recommended sites:
http://www.voivod.com - official site
http://www.voivodfan.com - great fan site