Philipe Renaud, La Presse, 06/06/09 Original french text
Quebec cult band Voivod releases Infini June 23rd, the 15th album of a rich and influencial carrer which has remodeled heavy metal, here as eleswhere. This could very well be the last album of the band confides Michel "Away" Langevin, drummer and illustrator.
Rock fans, cherish this Voivod album, as it is the last. The last with the invaluable input of brilliant Denis "Piggy" D'Amour on guitar, prematurely disapeared in 2005, following his fight with cancer.
This posthumus record, as was also Katorz in 2006, contains the last tracks of guitar recorded by the pioneer for songs of his band, a band he founded with Michel Langevin in Jonquiere, in 1982.
"For this tour, I wish we can give as much shows as possible before we stop. But as far as writing new songs without Piggy..." Michel Langevin pauses. "I think I would like composing with Dan Mongrain", Quebec metal scene veteran who has taken duty on guitar since Piggy's death. "We'll have to think things over"
Voivod is 25 years of stage and records. It is , as a sole group of four musicians, the foundation of Quebec's metal history, a scene still recognised today for the technical quality of it's musicians, says
Langevin. Many Voivod albums are cited today by the greats of metal, starting with Nothingface (1989), the pinnacle of the band's discography, bringing thrash metal into progressive territory, a direction then unknown.
The sequel without Piggy
When a band is amongst the untouchables of metal, and it's guitarist, Denis Piggy D'Amour, still considered as one of the most avant-garde musician of it's trade, it's somewhat uneasy to pretend replacing him. Also, before being an outstanding guitar player, to Away, he was a childhood friend."We founded the band together (with Denis Belanger, singer) Apart from Katorz, he was always in the studio with me.It's hard to imagine a sequel without him."
But a sequel there will be. "At the request of fans, says Michel Langevin. After Dennis death's, we finished album Katorz, since he had already recorded 10 songs with Jason (Newsted, ex-Metallica bassist who joined the ranks of Voivod), but we weren't giving any concerts.This record was made under a state of shock, afterwards, we took some distance from Voivod. But , festivals throught the world started calling us up to play." After months of hesitations, members gave up to the pressure and hit thre road- Japan notably, for the first time. "It was incredible. The gig will be released on DVD" he promises.
Infini holds the last guitar tracks recorded by Piggy for Voivod, "but there remains recordings made by Piggy for a solo album" asures Langevin, thinking those songs will see the light of day sometime in the future, to very happy fans.
Voivod connoiseurs will notice concision in the songs and their structures, departing from their typical tone. The songs are short and straight to the point. Most fascinating is Dennis D'Amour's presence, intact: all guitar tracks are complete, the sound is powerful and radiates profusely.
"I didn't think I would've had to make Infini, nor Katorz either. I had moved along to something else, concentrating on my illustration work." Michel Langevin, who did the covers for all of his band's records, will be launching a book containing over 500 drawings.
"But the fans in our forum, at our site, insisted that we continued. Denis Bélanger was first to be fidgeting: we have to carry on. Coming back from Japan last year, I completely changed my mind. I thought people would be offended to see us continue, but I realised there were lots of young ones with Voivod t-shirts who thought they could never see us on stage."
translated by manipulator
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(11) Le texte original dit quatorze, mais maintes raisons invitent à supposer que, dans la bouche d'Astérion, ce nombre représente l'infini.
posted June 06, 2009 18:57
posted June 07, 2009 03:47
