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Click on the song links to see the lyrics
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The
war against Silence review
Celtic
Frost, Slayer and Voivod are the anchors of one corner of heavy
metal, to me. Slayer hasn't done anything since my last report,
and Voivod's plans were slowed by a bad tour-van accident, last
August, from which singer Eric Forrest is lucky to be still recovering,
but we're relieved of the burden of waiting in silence by this collection
of three remixes, four outtakes from recent album sessions, and
four live recordings. Of the remixes, I like the crazed Foetus rending
of the Phobos track "Forlorn" enough to hope that Thirlwell
(who helped with one song on Negatron) gets involved again with
the next Voivod record, but the techno jitters added to "Nanoman"
and "Mercury" seem like wastes of energy to me. The four
outtakes are all plausible enough on their own terms, and while
neither Negatron nor Phobos particularly needed more material, then
or now, the frantic, "Batman"-ish "Ion", at
least, was worth exhuming (although of course Voivod did the "Batman"
theme, itself, on Dimension Hatröss). The live versions of
the recent songs "Project X" and "Cosmic Conspiracy"
are pretty close to the album versions, but the performance of "Astronomy
Domine", the Pink Floyd song first covered on Nothingface,
is harrowing, and the spirited warp-speed rout of "Nuclear
War", from way back on 1984's War and Pain, is thoroughly surreal,
and makes me eager to hear the full live album that Michel and Denis
are working on while Eric recuperates.
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Kronik
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Released
in 1998 by Slipdisc
Hypnotic Records
Various Producers
Denis D'Amour: Guitars & Effects
Eric Forrest: Bass & Vocals
Michel Langevin: Drums & Percussion
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Chronicle
of Chaos Review
Voivod - _Kronik_ (Hypnotic, August 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (8
out of 10)
Remixed Voivod?
I was -very- apprehensive about this release, and so I should
be. Voivod was always about being one step ahead of the metal
genre community, always a bit out there and exploring the realms
of metal, but this was Voivod fused with electronic music.
Remixed versions of some of their heavy and most memorable numbers
are found here ("Nanoman" and "Forlorn"), not to mention previously
unreleased numbers ("Vortex" and "Erosion") and a slew of live
version numbers (such as "Astronomy Domine" and "Nuclear War").
Voivod continues
on in the trend of many metal acts who have decided to go along
and remix their records/material (i.e., Fear Factory, Avulsed,
Pantera, etc.) and done it reasonably well. The Fear Factory _Remanufacture_
LP sounded great and so do the three numbers Voivod worked on.
As for the unreleased material here, it's still heavily experimental
and definitely Voivod sounding. Fans will not be disappointed.
And the live material from Germany? Stunning. This band is both
a strong studio and live act, thrilling fans for more than a decade
and still going strong. If this LP had been more of a remix record
rather than a remix / unreleased / live effort, I would have more
concern with what they did. But enough said -- this compilation
of material from Voivod rules. It has enough variety to keep fans
happy.
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