Member:
Son of Nothing
Date:
11/25/2003
After a relatively primitive but excellent debut and an "unspectacular" follow-up (anything that has "Korgull the Exterminator" is allright in my book), Canadian musical geniuses Voivod started setting music to cyberpunk novel-like atmospheres and incorporating dissonances that aided the extreme thrash the sound was still built on.
From the slow intro of the title track and a robotic voice saying, "WE ARE CONNECTED!!!" and the savage beast it turns into, you'd realize that this slice of madness virtually invented industrial metal...a sort of Throbbing Gristle's dystopia and paranoia brilliantly projected into metal circles. So beware of later imitators and "for the most part" posers. Voivod is one metal band that's all right for hip indie rockers to enjoy and be influenced by.
The absolute star of the show is Piggy, the guitarist who conjures up vicious sounds from his instrument as if there's no tomorrow. Even Robert Fripp on battery acid assisted by a Bonded by Blood Exodus rhythm section wouldn't come up with stuff this vicious I guess. Snake's vocals are half screams and half singing. The title track is like a mini-soundtrack to all alien/technology induced madness and screams of pain arising from it. And as I said, all the magic's in the guitar. "Tornado" is another case of the insane axe at work, especially in the later half where the dissonance is part disconcerting and part neck-wrecking. They achieve a level of technicality in this album too and so there's a high amount of cerebral nature involved.
The vocals in "Too Scared to Scream" is in a nasal-Dave Mustaine mode and hence, the title seems appropriate. "Forgotten in Space" is a masterly display of moods and the jarring occasional guitar/drum thrashing would make your head spin like a thousand Linda Blairs. "Ravenous Medicine" is probably the most famous track out of this album and true to nature is relatively easy on the ears (only relatively...the later half is intense!) Add to the mayhem "Order of the Blackguards" (great title) and the closer "Cockroaches" where lunacy creeps in the 30th second mark. There's that outro-weirdness special also!
1987 was sort of a landmark year in extreme metal with quite a few influential albums released. This stands lodged right amongst the top and is personally my number two Voivod album after the awe-inspiring, godly 1989 album, Nothingface. The next album, Dimension Hatross, also has a large number of devotees (and deservedly so). File this great band, not only among neck-snappers like Dark Angel and Kreator but also Captain Beyond (the tightness of the space rock...a contradiction in terms...in later Voivod is similar) and definitive sci-fi music like early Floyd, Hawkwind, Sun Ra and Funkadelic. Highest recommendation for fans of dissonant mid-70s King Crimson, Magma, harsh prog, extreme metal and/or crust punk.
P.S. - Praise should also be due to Away's superlative artwork. This album's a personal Voivod artwork favourite of mine.
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