{"id":72869,"date":"2018-09-21T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T00:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=72869"},"modified":"2018-09-23T20:33:08","modified_gmt":"2018-09-23T20:33:08","slug":"album-review-voivod-the-wake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-voivod-the-wake\/","title":{"rendered":"VOIVOD – The Wake (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

VOIVOD
The Wake<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCentury Media (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t know if extra-terrestrials actually exist, but if they were do then surely Voivod would be their favourite band!<\/p>\n

Fourteen albums and over 35 years in the business \u2013 that\u2019s not a brace of facts I\u2019d ever thought I\u2019d say, but what I do know is Voivod remains an impeccable and often inhospitable landscape of sound. The band produce a truly wondrous yet at times cold and harsh environment, first born seemingly on another planet and by way of marrying punky exploits with progressive jarring, all coated in a rusty thrash haze.<\/p>\n

Voivod has evolved like no other, remaining seamless in spite of its tragedies and departures. It\u2019s been five years since their last full-length opus Target Earth<\/em><\/a>, but once again they\u2019ve return to frazzle our brains with celestial aggression, miasmic mystery and that often spiky, demented fusing of punk, thrash and progressive meanderings.<\/p>\n

Eight tracks are offered up; deliciously served with those ever recognisable Voivod mechanics, mostly in the form of Michel \u201cAway\u201d Langevin\u2019s deft and yet destructive percussions and Denis \u201cSnake\u201d B\u00e9langer\u2019s sneers and slurs. Again, it\u2019s classic Voivod, although it could be argued that the \u201cclassic\u201d Voivod sound has never truly been found due to the ever-changing nature of this colossal beast.<\/p>\n

The magic of this otherworldly race has been its ability to create vast, effortless and often surreal and majestic structures which can at once cause bliss and dread. A track such as \u2018Spherical Perspective\u2019 being a prime example of such tender yet interstellar motions and such visionary, cosmic drifts are what we\u2019ve come to expect from Voivod.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all about sailing through the stratosphere on lofty dynamics. Voivod pokes, prods and jabs in that same unorthodox and almost argumentative fashion with the abrasive strikes of \u2018Always Moving\u2019 and sharp corners of \u2018Obsolete Beings\u2019. The latter trundles in typical, and yet not so typical Voivod fashion, but harkens back to the multi-coloured voyages of Angel Rat<\/em> (1991), as Away\u2019s drums kick and Daniel \u201cChewy\u201d Mongrain\u2019s guitars rumble with punk edge to a rattle of Dominique \u201cRocky\u201d Laroche\u2019s tight bass plucks.<\/p>\n

The Wake<\/em> is a record that is at once plastered in a dreamy yet Martian quality while remaining edgy with its influxes of technicality, such as on the zany dynamics of \u2018Iconspiracy\u2019 where the crafty combo nods towards the rawer flusters of Killing Technology<\/em> (1987) by merging that infectious, alien punk with complex thrash boosts. Indeed, the ghost of Denis \u201cPiggy\u201d D’Amour lurks in Chewy\u2019s guitar work. And that\u2019s a huge compliment from me, because while Chewy has his own style, he effortlessly fits into Voivod\u2019s framework of angular quirks.<\/p>\n

\u2018Event Horizon\u2019 provides further oxidized riffs; the band showcasing its ability to drift between those jabbing constructs and jazz-fusion workouts, and yet none of it feels \u201ctoo much\u201d. Voivod\u2019s neo-classical segments are just as caustic and accessible but remaining embedded in those sci-fi nuances. This is exhibited on \u2018The End Of Dormancy\u2019, where suddenly I\u2019m experiencing something akin to the 1956 movie Invasion Of The Body Snatchers<\/em>, only with that Voivod coating. Damn, this record is just so engulfing and menacing, and suggests that not only are the aliens coming but they are here with us and taking over!<\/p>\n

\u2018Orb Confusion\u2019 is a post-punk, conspiracy-bathed masterpiece fuelled by dissonant riffs, while the epic \u2018Sonic Mycelium\u2019 is Voivod at its most expansive and pretty much marries together everything you\u2019ve heard on the previous seven tracks and spits out one colossal heap of extra-terrestrial vibrancy.<\/p>\n

For me, The Wake<\/em> is one of Voivod\u2019s greatest achievements. A truly astounding composition riddled with rich detours that drag you down slightly unnerving avenues, creating experiences that are sure to have you looking not just to the skies but within yourself.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOIVODThe Wake Century Media (2018)Rating: 9\/10 I don\u2019t know if extra-terrestrials actually exist, but if they were do then surely Voivod would be their favourite band! Fourteen albums and over 35 years in the business \u2013 that\u2019s not a brace of facts I\u2019d ever thought I\u2019d say, but what I do know is Voivod remains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,240],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-voivod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72870,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72869\/revisions\/72870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}