AWAY... TO THE UNIVERSE OF

VANGUARD

  (article on VOIVOD, written by Alex Ristic)  

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  Perhaps the most quintessential band in Canadian metal history is about to release their tenth studio album and go on their umpteenth tour of Europe and North America.
     No one would have faulted you if you had said RUSH but the band in question is La Belle Province's VOIVOD, masters of science-fiction and psychodelic heavy metal spanning the last 15 years. Taking a break from recording at Signal To Noise Studio's Michel "Away" Langevin (drums), Denis "Piggy" D'amour (guitar), and Eric "E-Force" Forrest (bass, vocals), talk about the last year and a half since the release of 1995's "Negatron" which had them tour the US four times as well as two European tours which included a stint at Holland's Dynamo Festival, a premier metal event in Europe where VOIVOD played to over 60,000 people.
     "We were being chased in Italy," said Langevin about one of their recent treks across the pond.
     Forrest and D'amour have similar stories including taking almost half an hour to get back to their tour bus after signing dozens of autographs for fans in many countries in Europe.
     The band says that their style of music is appreciated more in Europe and it showed with sales of the last disc reaching 75,000 overall. They hope with their new album they'll top 100,000.
     "In Europe the music is street oriented," says Langevin citing one of the reasons why VOIVOD has a large following.
     The fact that VOIVOD is on an independent label now (Hypnotic) rather than MCA means that all of their success has double the significance.
     "We're indies now," said Langevin. "Sometimes it can be more appealing. In the end it's cheaper (to record) and it's a shorter time (to wait) for royalties."
     Sales are a very positive omen for the band because this is Forrest's second album with VOIVOD following the departure of original vocalist Snake which could have parlayed into a negative reaction from fans. The relative success of the last album reinforces that Forrest was well received by the fans and that his acceptance wasn't even considered to be an obstacle.
     "I don't really consciously think about what they're (fans) thinking," said Forrest who went on to add that he pleased that the reaction has been positive.
     Currently working on their latest release, the new album will tentatively be titled "Phobos" and will be a concept album with 13 tracks including three instrumentals and two bonus tracks say D'amour and Langevin.
"It's kind of the return of the VOIVOD character," said Langevin about the science-fiction myth that they took there name from as well as where some of their musical idea's were spawned from in the early eighties.
     "It's pretty simple actually," says Langevin about the concept. "He (VOIVOD) wakes up and looks around and doesn't like it (the state of the world) so he destroys everything and goes back to sleep."
     Langevin said that it was time that the character reared it's head again as well as from listening to his fans he found that there was a large interest in seeing it return.
     The concept album isn't new for VOIVOD as in the late eighties they released "Dimension Hatross" a fan favorite. This new album isn't going to overwhelm people with gigantic 17 minute tracks like from their previous albums.
     "No, but we got a lot of seven, eight minute ones (tracks)," said D'amour.
     Chimes in Langevin, "and seven, eight bars", followed by a roomful of laughter.
     The bonus tracks include a cover King Crimson's "21'st Century Schizoid Man" and a song the band did with METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted.
     Accompanying the album will be a new logo and graphics which Langevin does himself.  As for touring, the band will probably hit Europe first in the late spring / early summer followed by North America later in the year.