Voivod's music was classified as "SciFi Horror" in the 80s. Which is a very important part of understanding why the music is this way, as well as the lyrics. The whole point was to keep the listener uncomfortable. Bryan was extremely close to hitting on this with his analysis of Astronomy Domine. This album came with a piece of artwork for each song in the lyric sheet. The art helps to explain what each song is about as well, for example Missing Sequence is about mining on an unexplored alien planet. Most of the songs are about unexplored alien planets and the horror of space.
This was my first album with Voivod and after 3 or 4 listens I was sold. These guys are still making great music now, their last album Syncro anarchy is fantastic, especially considering they are over 40 years in to their career.
Voivod are a "band's band", if you get my meaning. They never broke big, despite even having had Jason Newstead in their ranks after leaving Metallica,, but you can hear them on records by people who probably don't even know theyvwere influenced by them. And they were like this during the 80s, a time where stylistic rigidity was very much the norm; despite having a lot of bands trying to outpace each other in terms of sheer aggression, ultimately there was little to separate the budding death metal sound from what Venom or even Maiden were doing. Voicod sounded like no one else, though, and were playing an entirely different ball game, and their music came from a desire to manifest a certain vision.
I love this album. Voivod has always been quite a ride musically. I remember when War and Pain came out in 1984 and have bought every record since. An amazing catalog by an amazing band.
The Pink Floyd influence (at least harmonically) is heavy, even without the redo of Astronomy Domine- you can clearly hear it. This was a more melodic Voivod than on Ratface or earlier records, and it is a very fine record all along.
Voivod is a very special band because you can put on any song by them even if its from 40 years ago and immediately know within the first 6 notes who made the song. Nothing else sounds like this And so it holds up for me even with the more dated elements such as the production, because theres just something so unique about this album and this band in general Also another point to uphold your djent comparison, Meshuggah first started around when this album came out
Well.... This great Canadian progressive thrash band were even one of the first prog metal bands. Are you surprised to learn they were inspired by Cardiacs?... They also featured Jason Newstead (formerly in Metallica) on bass for quite a while.
@DiiNovensiles That I don't know. In any case, the musical adjacency is obvious earlier on - even if developed totally independently. So if they hadn't heard Cardiacs at this point (which do seem a bit unlikely, being as Cardiacs were an early stages underground band from another continent) they could relate their own stuff to them once aware.
Yes, love this band. I like chaos and they are unique, even from album to album they have changed and have done numerous times. But they have always kept that voivod core sound.
Thanx for doing this one. Easily one of my top ten favorite bands. Now I'll throw you for a loop at how they influenced you with out you knowing. You have a Voivod haircut. Before Voivod metal heads and punks wore long hair or mohawks, Voivod was the first band to do the shaved sides look in the mid eighties.
I have like 50 Voivod songs (iirc I added the "This is Voivod" spotify playlist on a whim) somewhere in my big playlists and I remember pretty much nothing in terms of specific songs (a few still stick out of course and I have them in favorites), but their sound in general has very much grown on me over time, I recognize them very easily as a band, as a unit. I think the secret to enjoying them is to just treat their whole albums or even their entire discography as one entire experience and not focus on individual parts (like a visit to an amusement park, aquarium or whatever, you typically remember the day of visit in general as a "fun time" instead of the specific sequence of events that took place). Thankfully the band has been very much active for the last half a century, so there are plenty of songs that can be thrown together at random into bunch of big piles of fun.
As far as covers go, one possible approach is the "jazz standard" one (where the original isn't "improved on", just shown in a different light). The far side of that might be My Favorite Things. Apropos lyrics, one thing to remember is they're French, so might use English a bit differently. And then there's their "mythology". At least back then they were placing their music in a scifi world (matching the art - made by the drummer). At about that time, too, a "voivod" was not a Polish nobleman, but an alien vampire overlord in a dystopia.
Regarding the lyrics - a lot of it makes a great deal more sense knowing that the band members grew up near an aluminum factory. The environment was impacted and the people (workers?) in the area have heightened rates of Alzheimer's.
Cool sidenote: Many grunge bands were obssessed by early Voivod. Dave Grohl and Chris Novoselic mentioned them a couple of times and others too. It is funny to see you so uncertain about how your perception of their genre, intentions, interests and origins would offend the fans. Meanwhile for me this is one of my all time favourite albums ever and Id call them: "Prog trhash playing punkers with a strong obssession with Pink Floyd". Ive seen them multiple times live and even to this date, they still rank among the best live bands I have ever experienced, especially when playing for lower hundreds of people. They are absolutely breathtaking. Witnessing Jack Luminous from Outer Limits live, in its entirety of glorious 20 minutes, about 10 years ago counts as one of my absolute top experiences with live music.
Genius album, especially for that time. True, they are no Watchtower, but it is absolutely phenomenal album. I have always thoroughly enjoyed listening to this. As to this being too fast and too much, this is one of those albums you listen for 30 years every now and then. Modern stuff may be much too much because I am old man too, but Voivod? This is classic record in the same sense as the classic Rush albums are classic. And at this single point in time Voivod were lightyears ahead of Rush in almost every sense I could come up with. (Yeah, both Canadian bands, hence the comparison). Maybe my point is that when Voivod did crazy stuff, they did it because that was what their particular story demanded. Today people mostly do crazy stuff to show off. It is a difference of creation and imitation. Because this is creation.
Saw these guys about a year or two ago. They opened for Opeth in Utrecht (The Netherlands). Back than I found this a very interesting band. A bit uncomfortable sound and that's what I like the most in music in general along with unexpected transitions. Bands like Voivod and Opeth give that. Also Between The Buried And Me is one of my favourites.
I have a suspicion that Angel Rat would be his favorite of theirs. But I also (knowing something of his taste outside this video) think he might enjoy the wake a lot.
This album is when they started their easy listening phase, or leaned into prog as opposed to super raw thrash. Prior to that, well, yeah. Amazing album. And RIP Piggy. Genius guitarist.
Voivod was an aquired taste for me, and they're still not one of my top favourite bands. But I did come around to them and started to really love their awkwardness due to e.g. very great riffs and exciting arrangements that took a while to enjoy in full.
This album was my first contact with Voivod. Noone I knew listened to them, but I was intrigued by their covers and were very much into thrash at the time, so I picked this up as soon as it hit the local record stores. And I was perplexed. I did like Astronomy Domine somewhat, but the rest of the songs felt too alien and sterile to me. Today I'm very nostalgic about the album, and I likewise love the follow up Angel Rat but they kinda lost me with the stuff they made after that.
Also, on the subject of Proto-Djent, Meshuggah was the band that pioneered that genre and I can assure you, without knowing him personally, that Fredrik Thordendal was VERY aware of Voivod and their works. Nothingface itself was released in 1989, same as Meshuggahs first EP and their Contradictions Collapse album was released in 1991. Long before Tesseract and whatnot in the 2000s. If Meshuggah were influenced by Voivod? Have to ask them.
@@Eirath It's a matter if definition though. The djent "sound" or technique was def developed by Meshuggah (inspired by Voivod, Stravinsky or whatever). What developed into a "genre" they now call "djent" doesn't really include Meshuggah (though they inspired it). I do love Meshuggah and some djent bands as well - but grew tired of some modern bands that felt too iterative after I spent a while in the "djent fan base".
Hey Bryan, the Stravinsky reference on this album is more overt than you suspect, it is presented well in the following video (uploaded by the current Voivod guitarist): ua-cam.com/video/9r8qCxEYiUg/v-deo.html
Voivod is just weird. I probably more so appreciate them than like them, but a group with this much creativity and confidence should be celebrated. I think they are one of Dave Grolhs favourite band and a big influence of Vektor so that's all neat. Voivod and this album specifically is one where i return to it from time to time to just test it again and I did like it now maybe a little more than usual. When it hits, it its haaaard. So much fun when it gets there, but I am so much of an album listener and the whole doesn't yet do it for me. They have some more straight forward material like Angel Rat. I especially like 'The Prow' off of it. Happy, fast melodic with a little off beat breakdown. Also their newest album was fun too. Bands tend to get slower and more restrained when they get older and sometimes I wouldn't mind this young Voivod to slow down ^^ Then again maybe the later stuff isn't as experimental and crazy which might make those releases more boring. Still, gotta respect Voivod and cool to hear your thoughts as well. Cheers.
loved the reaction! you mentioned your love for interesting cover versions - maybe it's time to dig into Panzerballett - in particular on their albums "Starke Stücke", "Hart genossen", and "X-mas Death" you'll find enough to make you happy. Guaranteed :-)
Great band (but it looks like they've given up). Best Xmas album ever is Xmas Death Jazz. (And their covers of Time of Our Life and the Pink Panther ... and Giant Steps ... and Take Five ... there are more, I think ... ) I once saw a backstage video where they did a cool unplugged cover of Smoke on the Water (using the back of a couch as a "drum kit" if I recall correctly.) I think they call their genre "Jazz Metal"?
You mentioned Alt rock on Into the hypercube, their next album Angel rats goes all out Alt rock, still with some voivod weirdness but they changed a lot for one album only. Still good though, you might actually like it more because it’s a drastic change from this.
You're not the first to rub their chin and strain to pin a genre on Voivod 😂 I listened to this for months after seeing them live on my walkman riding the train around NY
Good hear my old weirdo music favourite Voivod one the best albums and breakdown and analysis for 3 hours- this almost sort psyche sports how long he concentrate for this difficult to play and one most original bands which played in metal shows with the best bands of 80’s
Yeah this album isn't really Thrash metal album per say, but it was hugely influential to metal in general at the time. It's a weird album. I'd say the first 4 albums were their Thrashiest era
believe it or not, prog metal is not progressing, its a stale, set in stone style by 2024. its such a wonder to hear prog metal from back when they were experimenting with every single song
That's exactly why I tend to mentally separate "progressive" metal and "prog metal", where one is a modifier to metal and the other is a genre with it's own sound. I do the same with prog rock, treating it differently than progressive rock.
This band and album were massively important to thrash and metal as a whole. Probably one of the more respected bands from that era.
Voivod's music was classified as "SciFi Horror" in the 80s. Which is a very important part of understanding why the music is this way, as well as the lyrics. The whole point was to keep the listener uncomfortable. Bryan was extremely close to hitting on this with his analysis of Astronomy Domine. This album came with a piece of artwork for each song in the lyric sheet. The art helps to explain what each song is about as well, for example Missing Sequence is about mining on an unexplored alien planet. Most of the songs are about unexplored alien planets and the horror of space.
This was my first album with Voivod and after 3 or 4 listens I was sold. These guys are still making great music now, their last album Syncro anarchy is fantastic, especially considering they are over 40 years in to their career.
I wore this tape out twice. Amazing album. Dimension Hatross is also a masterpiece cover to cover
This is my favorite Voivod album! To me, this album sounds better than most modern productions. Everything is so clear and fits beautifully together.
There is no contest whatsoever, this is Voivod at their peak!
Voivod are a "band's band", if you get my meaning. They never broke big, despite even having had Jason Newstead in their ranks after leaving Metallica,, but you can hear them on records by people who probably don't even know theyvwere influenced by them. And they were like this during the 80s, a time where stylistic rigidity was very much the norm; despite having a lot of bands trying to outpace each other in terms of sheer aggression, ultimately there was little to separate the budding death metal sound from what Venom or even Maiden were doing. Voicod sounded like no one else, though, and were playing an entirely different ball game, and their music came from a desire to manifest a certain vision.
I love this album. Voivod has always been quite a ride musically. I remember when War and Pain came out in 1984 and have bought every record since. An amazing catalog by an amazing band.
I think you can see how this album was very influential to Vektor
Saw them with Soundgarden and Faith no More and they were the best sounding live band I've seen to this day beside Dream Theater
I saw this show at the Paradise Theater in Boston in 1990. To this day the best show I have ever been to.
The Pink Floyd influence (at least harmonically) is heavy, even without the redo of Astronomy Domine- you can clearly hear it. This was a more melodic Voivod than on Ratface or earlier records, and it is a very fine record all along.
Voivod is a very special band because you can put on any song by them even if its from 40 years ago and immediately know within the first 6 notes who made the song. Nothing else sounds like this
And so it holds up for me even with the more dated elements such as the production, because theres just something so unique about this album and this band in general
Also another point to uphold your djent comparison, Meshuggah first started around when this album came out
Well.... This great Canadian progressive thrash band were even one of the first prog metal bands. Are you surprised to learn they were inspired by Cardiacs?...
They also featured Jason Newstead (formerly in Metallica) on bass for quite a while.
Is there record of them being inspired by Cardiacs prior to Chewy? That'd be news to me (and ofc I ask because this is way pre-Chewy)
The Cardiacs influence makes a TON of sense
@DiiNovensiles That I don't know. In any case, the musical adjacency is obvious earlier on - even if developed totally independently. So if they hadn't heard Cardiacs at this point (which do seem a bit unlikely, being as Cardiacs were an early stages underground band from another continent) they could relate their own stuff to them once aware.
@@DiiNovensilesI do recommend the band The Osiris Club, who took much inspiration from both - still being original enough.
Yes, love this band. I like chaos and they are unique, even from album to album they have changed and have done numerous times. But they have always kept that voivod core sound.
Thanx for doing this one. Easily one of my top ten favorite bands. Now I'll throw you for a loop at how they influenced you with out you knowing. You have a Voivod haircut. Before Voivod metal heads and punks wore long hair or mohawks, Voivod was the first band to do the shaved sides look in the mid eighties.
I have like 50 Voivod songs (iirc I added the "This is Voivod" spotify playlist on a whim) somewhere in my big playlists and I remember pretty much nothing in terms of specific songs (a few still stick out of course and I have them in favorites), but their sound in general has very much grown on me over time, I recognize them very easily as a band, as a unit.
I think the secret to enjoying them is to just treat their whole albums or even their entire discography as one entire experience and not focus on individual parts (like a visit to an amusement park, aquarium or whatever, you typically remember the day of visit in general as a "fun time" instead of the specific sequence of events that took place).
Thankfully the band has been very much active for the last half a century, so there are plenty of songs that can be thrown together at random into bunch of big piles of fun.
My first Voi Vod album. So different and "out there" --look forward to working my way through this video.
As far as covers go, one possible approach is the "jazz standard" one (where the original isn't "improved on", just shown in a different light). The far side of that might be My Favorite Things.
Apropos lyrics, one thing to remember is they're French, so might use English a bit differently. And then there's their "mythology". At least back then they were placing their music in a scifi world (matching the art - made by the drummer). At about that time, too, a "voivod" was not a Polish nobleman, but an alien vampire overlord in a dystopia.
Oh boy, finally cult avant-garde/prog metal shit again!
I’ve just discovered this band, they popped up in my you tube recommendations. Band Lizzard Album Mesh, it has blown me away.
Yeah, Lizzard's a great prog band! They're French. Haven't got to the new album yet. Thanks for the reminder 😊
Can you imagine that they toured with Soundgarden and Faith No More in 1990? I have a bootleg (Voivod) tape somewhere from the Milwaukee show...
Gotta love some Voivod!
Wish you would do this with Spiral Architect's A Sceptic's Universe sometime in the future.
You just witnessed underrated masterpiece my friend. Great video as always
Regarding the lyrics - a lot of it makes a great deal more sense knowing that the band members grew up near an aluminum factory. The environment was impacted and the people (workers?) in the area have heightened rates of Alzheimer's.
Cool sidenote: Many grunge bands were obssessed by early Voivod. Dave Grohl and Chris Novoselic mentioned them a couple of times and others too.
It is funny to see you so uncertain about how your perception of their genre, intentions, interests and origins would offend the fans. Meanwhile for me this is one of my all time favourite albums ever and Id call them: "Prog trhash playing punkers with a strong obssession with Pink Floyd". Ive seen them multiple times live and even to this date, they still rank among the best live bands I have ever experienced, especially when playing for lower hundreds of people. They are absolutely breathtaking. Witnessing Jack Luminous from Outer Limits live, in its entirety of glorious 20 minutes, about 10 years ago counts as one of my absolute top experiences with live music.
The song "Pre-Ignition" takes whole passages of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" the entire tri-tone sections.
Genius album, especially for that time. True, they are no Watchtower, but it is absolutely phenomenal album. I have always thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.
As to this being too fast and too much, this is one of those albums you listen for 30 years every now and then. Modern stuff may be much too much because I am old man too, but Voivod? This is classic record in the same sense as the classic Rush albums are classic. And at this single point in time Voivod were lightyears ahead of Rush in almost every sense I could come up with. (Yeah, both Canadian bands, hence the comparison).
Maybe my point is that when Voivod did crazy stuff, they did it because that was what their particular story demanded. Today people mostly do crazy stuff to show off. It is a difference of creation and imitation. Because this is creation.
Interesting that you mentioned grunge while listening to Into My Hypercube. If I remember correctly Dave Grohl is a massive fan 🤘
Saw these guys about a year or two ago. They opened for Opeth in Utrecht (The Netherlands). Back than I found this a very interesting band. A bit uncomfortable sound and that's what I like the most in music in general along with unexpected transitions. Bands like Voivod and Opeth give that. Also Between The Buried And Me is one of my favourites.
Good 'ole Voivod. They are always themselves and that is pretty awesome.
Well, they had more atmospheric albums, like Angel Rat and The Outer Limits. So if you liked that, you might enjoy these ones
I have a suspicion that Angel Rat would be his favorite of theirs. But I also (knowing something of his taste outside this video) think he might enjoy the wake a lot.
Man you should hear their album 'Synchro Anarchy' from 2022 - they still have some ideas :))
This album is when they started their easy listening phase, or leaned into prog as opposed to super raw thrash. Prior to that, well, yeah.
Amazing album.
And RIP Piggy. Genius guitarist.
If you love this kind of technical Thrash you should definitely check out "First Depression" by Depressive Age. It's much darker though.
Voivod was an aquired taste for me, and they're still not one of my top favourite bands. But I did come around to them and started to really love their awkwardness due to e.g. very great riffs and exciting arrangements that took a while to enjoy in full.
That's a very good way to put it. Feel a bit similar about them.
This album was my first contact with Voivod. Noone I knew listened to them, but I was intrigued by their covers and were very much into thrash at the time, so I picked this up as soon as it hit the local record stores. And I was perplexed. I did like Astronomy Domine somewhat, but the rest of the songs felt too alien and sterile to me. Today I'm very nostalgic about the album, and I likewise love the follow up Angel Rat but they kinda lost me with the stuff they made after that.
Also, on the subject of Proto-Djent, Meshuggah was the band that pioneered that genre and I can assure you, without knowing him personally, that Fredrik Thordendal was VERY aware of Voivod and their works. Nothingface itself was released in 1989, same as Meshuggahs first EP and their Contradictions Collapse album was released in 1991. Long before Tesseract and whatnot in the 2000s. If Meshuggah were influenced by Voivod? Have to ask them.
@@Eirath It's a matter if definition though. The djent "sound" or technique was def developed by Meshuggah (inspired by Voivod, Stravinsky or whatever). What developed into a "genre" they now call "djent" doesn't really include Meshuggah (though they inspired it). I do love Meshuggah and some djent bands as well - but grew tired of some modern bands that felt too iterative after I spent a while in the "djent fan base".
They opened for RUSH on this album tour
2:06:18 LAPSE OF TIME! SYNCROFREEZE! LOOP REWIND! FORWARD SPEED!
Personally the lyrics are just there to help the atmosphere and world of the album
I think that 11/8 in the second song was split into like 12/8 and 10/8 alternating.
Hey Bryan, the Stravinsky reference on this album is more overt than you suspect, it is presented well in the following video (uploaded by the current Voivod guitarist):
ua-cam.com/video/9r8qCxEYiUg/v-deo.html
It was fun watching you getting whiplash from all the changes lol.
Voivod is just weird. I probably more so appreciate them than like them, but a group with this much creativity and confidence should be celebrated. I think they are one of Dave Grolhs favourite band and a big influence of Vektor so that's all neat.
Voivod and this album specifically is one where i return to it from time to time to just test it again and I did like it now maybe a little more than usual. When it hits, it its haaaard. So much fun when it gets there, but I am so much of an album listener and the whole doesn't yet do it for me.
They have some more straight forward material like Angel Rat. I especially like 'The Prow' off of it. Happy, fast melodic with a little off beat breakdown. Also their newest album was fun too. Bands tend to get slower and more restrained when they get older and sometimes I wouldn't mind this young Voivod to slow down ^^ Then again maybe the later stuff isn't as experimental and crazy which might make those releases more boring.
Still, gotta respect Voivod and cool to hear your thoughts as well. Cheers.
loved the reaction! you mentioned your love for interesting cover versions - maybe it's time to dig into Panzerballett - in particular on their albums "Starke Stücke", "Hart genossen", and "X-mas Death" you'll find enough to make you happy. Guaranteed :-)
Great band (but it looks like they've given up). Best Xmas album ever is Xmas Death Jazz.
(And their covers of Time of Our Life and the Pink Panther ... and Giant Steps ... and Take Five ... there are more, I think ... )
I once saw a backstage video where they did a cool unplugged cover of Smoke on the Water (using the back of a couch as a "drum kit" if I recall correctly.)
I think they call their genre "Jazz Metal"?
Under rated band. I only ever bought one album. Angel Rat. Loved it.
You mentioned Alt rock on Into the hypercube, their next album Angel rats goes all out Alt rock, still with some voivod weirdness but they changed a lot for one album only. Still good though, you might actually like it more because it’s a drastic change from this.
32:35 this should be the norm on how fun music is or else im falling asleep and id rather have ambient music
Oh hell yeah. One of my favorite albums of all time
If this counts as thrash, then this is the only thrash I've ever liked.
Try e.g. Forbidden's album Green, or the prog thrash band Nevermore
You're not the first to rub their chin and strain to pin a genre on Voivod 😂 I listened to this for months after seeing them live on my walkman riding the train around NY
Their genre is Voivod :P
Good hear my old weirdo music favourite Voivod one the best albums and breakdown and analysis for 3 hours- this almost sort psyche sports how long he concentrate for this difficult to play and one most original bands which played in metal shows with the best bands of 80’s
The Unknown's Nose.
Yeah this album isn't really Thrash metal album per say, but it was hugely influential to metal in general at the time. It's a weird album. I'd say the first 4 albums were their Thrashiest era
2:03:05 they need to invent turn-based music just for bryan
believe it or not, prog metal is not progressing, its a stale, set in stone style by 2024. its such a wonder to hear prog metal from back when they were experimenting with every single song
That's exactly why I tend to mentally separate "progressive" metal and "prog metal", where one is a modifier to metal and the other is a genre with it's own sound. I do the same with prog rock, treating it differently than progressive rock.
Man, you are so right. 100% agree!