VOIVOD 1989 bio by Greg Fasolino (Volcano Suns) Montréal's Voivod is a thrilling anomaly, staking out a unique terrain on the postmodern frontier. While often classified as metal, what this group of French Canadian weirdos does is better described as dark progressive rock with a strain of conceptual sci-fi. Beginning the band's album-by-album concept--the adventures of a futuristic warrior entity called the Voivod--War and Pain is a crude, careening blast of youthful energy, post-apocalyptic Mad Maxisms and prickly power-thrash reminiscent of Motörhead. Exciting tracks like "Voivod" and "Black City" possess a raw, neo-bluesy quality that overcomes the poor production quality. Rrröööaaarrr takes Voivod's original style to its logical extreme/dead end, offering a homogeneous wall of cathartic riffing and Denis "Snake" Belanger's most tortured vocal articulations. While "Korg?ll the Exterminator" is convoluted enough to be memorable, the rest of the album's white-noise metal is a blur that leaves no substantial impression. A change was both imminent and necessary. (The picture-disc EP consists of four tracks from the album.) Killing Technology brought Voivod into maturity. Soaking up disparate influences especially progressive/psychedelic rockers like Pink Floyd and Van der Graaf Generator and post-punk/industrialists like Killing Joke and Einst?rzende Neubauten), Voivod formed a fresh, dissonant sound, merging metal's power with these other genres' experimental imperatives, and doing it better than anyone since Chrome. Like the Voivod himself (who, at this point, ventures into the unknown vastness of space), the album reveals a band making a successful, brave transition from primitivism to futurism. The CD and cassette include two bonus tracks. Subsequent releases continued this upward climb in quality and imagination. Dimension Hatröss conceptually capsulizes the rise and fall of an alien universe, primed by complex songs that flirt with melody yet retain all of Voivod's previous energy. With the appearance of electronics and Snake's new-found singing abilities, this is an excellent album. Nothingface showcases a full-blown melodic sensibility, vibrant production, the integration of sampling technology, guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour's increasing stature as the Robert Fripp of alternative metal and a stunning rendition of Syd Barrett's "Astronomy Domine." The haunting "Missing Sequences" is only one of many high-quality songs, all mated to the band's most serious (subjects range from ecology and alchemy to existentialism) and deftly composed lyrics yet. -(Greg Fasolino VOLCANO SUNS)