Joel's Introduction to Voivod, Part One: The Pre-"Angel Rat" Years

I've been listening to a lot of Voivod lately. Voivod, if you are not aware, is Canada's greatest export since Rush, and Quebec's greatest export ever.

Voivod's 11 proper studio albums range from cacophonous, thrashing "nuclear metal" to Pink Floyd and Rush-inspired progressive metal to totally spaced-out psychedelic hard rock (which is a sore subject among many of the band's long-time fans) to industrial/death metal (which is another sore subject among many of the band's long-time fans) to (relatively) straightforward hard rock/metal, and I love each and every one of them (some more than others, naturally), and I'm very excited to have the opportunity to share this band with anyone who cares to look and listen.

The first 5 albums will be the focus of this entry, for two reasons. All five were recorded with the original lineup - Denis Belanger, a.k.a. "Snake," vocals; Denis D'Amour, a.k.a. "Piggy," guitars; Jean-Yves Theriault, a.k.a. "Blacky," bass; and Michel Langevin, a.k.a. "Away," drums - and all five fit within the band's original concept, first imagined by Away several years before the band even formed. The concept is pretty convoluted, but here are the basics as they pertain to the first five albums: On War and Pain (1984), the Voivod, a "nuclear vampire," awakens after nuclear war to reclaim his place as ruler of Morgoth. On RRROOOAAARRR (1986), the Voivod reawakens after several more nuclear wars, this time as Korgull the Exterminator, an unstoppable killing machine of unimaginable destruction.

By the time Killing Technology arrived in 1987, the Voivod had destroyed its world and escaped to outer space in search of new worlds to conquer. In 1988, the Voivod created Dimension Hatröss in a laboratory experiment, then traveled there to observe its inhabitants, extract their knowledge, and destroy them all and their dimension. Finally, the Voivod destroyed its own personality and tried to assimilate the personalities of others, but to no avail, and became the Nothingface (1989).

Dimension Hatröss is the only one of the five that could accurately be called a "concept album," and it's a mind-bending one at that. The other four really just fit the general theme of the Voivod's adventures, and the first three in particular reflect the nuclear paranoia of the Cold War era in which they debuted. Did I say "reflect?" Sorry, I meant "reek of." But in a good way. But enough talk - on to the evidence!

Exhibit A: the video for the song "Voivod" from the seminal War and Pain, which was remastered and re-released by Metal Blade Records with lots of extras in 2004).



This is "Ripping Headaches," from RRROOOAAARRR, which is both awesome and out of print (and which sounds like it was recorded directly into a li'l old school hand-held tape recorder inside a 50-gallon drum).



"Ravenous Medicine" from Killing Technology, also out of print. This is when Voivod really started to show what they were capable of, both musically and lyrically.



"Tribal Convictions" from Dimension Hatröss, which is one of the few Voivod albums still in print. You should own it. I'll have to review it separately another time, because I have too many things to say about it...it's absolutely epic.



And here's "Psychic Vacuum," also from Dimension Hatröss.



This is a clip from the "Pepsi Power Hour" on MuchMusic (which is now Fuse) from like '89 or '90 - two tracks from Nothingface, which is considered by many (most?) to be their masterpiece. Out of print? You bet!



And finally, even though I don't care for "videos" like this, "Missing Sequences" (also from Nothingface) is too great a song for you to not hear.



This concludes "Joel's Introduction to Voivod, Part One: The Pre-Angel Rat Years." I hope you'll join me for the thrilling conclusion, "Joel's Introduction to Voivod, Part Two: Angel Rat, The Outer Limits, and Beyond," where I'll discuss those two "sore subjects" I mentioned above and more.