On the latest event of the completion of a US leg of Voivod‘s celebratory fortieth anniversary tour, myself and a bunch of fellow hockey pucks discovered ourselves engaged in dialog about everybody’s favorite band of Québécois area cadets.
The vary of this explicit Voivod fanboy/woman conference spanned from of us who bear in mind first listening to the band when covers comprised nearly all of their demos to those that recall the Nothingface tour when the band headlined a North American run with Faith No More and Soundgarden as openers to these extra in tune with guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain than they’re with unique guitarist Denis “Piggy” D’Amour and a few who even really favored the Eric Forrest years. The unifying pressure amongst all is all of us recalling the times while you could not escape MuchMusic — Canada’s MTV, which additionally stopped working movies ages in the past — airing the video of their cowl of Pink Floyd‘s “Astronomy Domine.”
A part of our dialogue tackled how the band has managed to enchantment to totally different generations of followers. In case you’ve seen them stay for the reason that mid-’10s, there is a particular divide within the room when the outdated, traditional materials is aired versus when the newer, Century Media stuff is performed. Not that there is not some quantity of appreciative crossover, however there are positively of us with deeper connections to Goal Earth, The Wake and Synchro Anarchy which are on the identical stage as us geezers who dig every part from Battle and Ache to The Outer Limits and all stops in between.
This kind of factor is to be anticipated when a band has been as constant as Voivod. A number of shit has gone down for them in 40 years, together with the drafting in of Mongrain in 2008. Chewy is basically the rationale the band was in a position to proceed following Piggy‘s passing in 2005. An completed musician with excellent pitch, prodigious expertise and the scholastic credentials to show it, Mongrain was/is a pupil of D’Amour to the purpose the place he was not solely in a position to replicate the outdated shit and creator tab/musical notation books, but additionally write new materials trustworthy to the Voivod identify.
It is debatable whether or not anybody else may have performed this in addition to he has; not simply enjoying the hits, however retaining the band forging ahead. Morgöth Tales is a small a part of the band’s ongoing legacy, a “Better of” of types spanning the pre-Chewy period of the band — from one of many first songs they ever wrote via to the Eric Forrest and Jason Newsted (each of whom are featured contributors) years all the way in which to the title monitor/model new tune. All songs had been re-recorded earlier this yr within the curiosity of sonic consistency and as a celebration of each the place the band is at and the place they got here from.
“Morgöth Tales,” the tune, rounds out Morgöth Tales the album with robotic, herky-jerky metallic math rock juxtaposed in opposition to shuffling grind blasts and opulent, Area Odyssey airiness. The center part and ultimate minute are decidedly “old-school” — old-fashioned being in quotes as a result of despite the fact that the reference factors are 1988’s Dimension Hatröss and 1989’s Nothingface, it nonetheless sounds just like the twenty fourth century — earlier than a return to the sounds of their Van Der Graaf Generator and Hawkwind influences coming to the fore. It is nearly just like the band took an enormous dollop of their historical past then sculpted and tailor-made it into one tune. If all forthcoming new materials is that this good, no matter crossover divide exists between outdated and new followers will certainly shrink.
As for the older, re-recorded songs, extra acquainted items like “Killing Know-how” and “Macrosolutions to Megaproblems” share area with deeper cuts like The Outer Limits‘ “Repair My Coronary heart” and Voivod‘s “Insurgent Robotic.” All show the endurance of the fabric, even in any case these years and the performances being within the context of 20 to 40 years after the actual fact versus the youthful starvation and fireplace of a bunch of 20-somethings. Your fats, bald and gray scribe wish to go on file and shine an enormous ol’ highlight on the addition of “Condemned to the Gallows” on this assortment.
The tune goes approach, approach again, being actually the second unique tune the band ever wrote again within the early ’80s, and solely ever appeared on the Metallic Bloodbath V compilation. Nonetheless, it stays one among my private favourites given its thrashing swagger, killer ’70s rock lead break screaming, counterpoint vocal strains and extra hooks than a gown retailer at each flip of its four-and-a-half minutes. It is also a first-rate instance of a tune with each ridiculous ear worm capability and one of the vital unheralded moments within the historical past of one among metallic’s most unusual and unique bands, traits that solider on 40 years down the road.
