Aug. 05, 2009 - Issue #720: The Season 2009
Voivod
To Infini and beyond: Quebec metal legends refuse to stay down
Quebec's metal heads Voivod achieved that point in its career, the band's fan base—the affectionately named "Iron Gang"—fervent and always expanding to add the next generation of young headbangers. Even after all that time on the road and in the studio, the band showed no signs of slowing down or resting on its success, albeit underground.
The unfortunate passing of guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005 was something that Voivod's members weren't sure they could see past. Although they went in the studio to record Katorz, an album that features Piggy's guitar work, mere months after his departure from this Earth, it was a process that was emotionally difficult, and as drummer Michel "Away" Langevin calls it, "a blurry nightmare." And going on stage as Voivod without Piggy wasn't something he could even consider.
Voivod, however, kept getting calls to perform, and there was still plenty of material that Piggy had demoed, including a couple of albums worth of solo material.
"In mid-2008, we got an offer to play a festival here in Montréal, called Heavy Montréal, and I was not too sure," Langevin admits. "It took a lot of pressure from the promoter and the management, and then Snake [Denis Bélanger] started calling me, saying, 'Look, if we don't do anything, if we don't go back on stage or in the studio, the music will rot, and it's just going to fade away.' So I think it was the thing that convinced me, once Snake said that. He thought the way to make Piggy's music live was to play it live and also through releasing it."
There were still fears that the audience would think that the band was after some sort of money grab, but after an enthusiastic audience response at Heavy Montréal, the band decided to go ahead and complete the unreleased Voivod tracks in the form of Infini.
"Being so underground, everyone will probably understand that it's not money oriented, you know," Langevin says. "For Infini, there were no bass tracks, so Jason [Newsted] had to write and record the tracks last year. Snake and I had demoed some basic tracks in 2004 that we had to re-record. Five years later, we felt we had to update our respective tracks a little, according to what we are now. I think that I improved mine, and Snake is the one that changed the most—his original tracks—he thought that the 2004 lyrics were not relevant anymore to what he is now, and also he wanted to share his experience of losing Piggy, I think. That's what I hear in his lyrics.
"We also approach the guitar tracks differently," he adds. "We didn't re-amplify them. We took them exactly as they were on the laptop, because we wanted the raw feel of Piggy recording in his apartment."
Langevin isn't sure what the future holds for the band, which has Dan Mongrain (Martyr) humbly taking on Piggy's guitar parts. While Bélanger and Langevin are considering working on Piggy's solo material, Infini could be the very last Voivod album and this year's heavy tour schedule could be the last Voivod tour. Band life has taught Langevin to take things day by day, but he does concede that talk of writing and recording might happen after touring. It's just too soon to say.
"I think that there's one thing for sure," he says. "We're going to be touring as long as we can, because we were getting antsy after a couple of years away from the scene.
"I am hoping that I will always be working on Voivod projects." V
Fri, Aug 7 (8 pm)
Voivod
With Down, Weedeater, Danava
Edmonton Event Centre, $35
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