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TORONTO - Two years ago, Michel Langevin thought - even hoped - that his band, Voivod, was finished. The Jonquiere, Que., metal innovators had lost founding member Denis (Piggy) D’Amour to colon cancer. After 11 albums and 23 years drumming with D’Amour, Langevin found it too painful to even think about Voivod. He was ready to leave the band behind. But Voivod’s ardent fans weren’t. "At first I thought it’d be sacrilege to go onstage without Piggy," said Langevin, nicknamed "Away," in a telephone interview. "But after a few shows here in Canada then in Japan, I realized there were a lot of kids who had never seen Voivod and believed that they would never see Voivod. "They were very relieved we were back together and that we would still exist." Voivod has just released their 12th album, "Infini." Its 13 songs comprise the last ever written for the band by D’Amour before his death in August 2005. He recorded the tunes into a laptop given to him by former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, who joined Voivod in 2002. D’Amour’s original demos appear on the album just as they were originally recorded in his bachelor apartment with no overdubs. Langevin said the rest of the group filled out the tracks remotely, with bandmembers recording their passages from opposite corners of the continent. The result retains the essence of Voivod while sounding a little more raw, slightly less prog-rock. "But the Voivod signature is there," Langevin noted. "A bit of psych, a bit of punk, a bit of gothic rock, and a lot of metal." Indeed, on the other side of the band’s hiatus, that signature - and the band’s legacy - is coming into focus. By integrating prog flourishes such as irregular tempos and ambitious storylines into their records, Voivod was a distinct presence in 1980s thrash and one of the first Canadian metal bands to gather an international following. They certainly influenced Newsted, a longtime fan and friend of the band, who played on "Infini" and mixed the record at his San Francisco studio. "He’s a big part of the Voivod sound," Langevin said. "He has kind of a stoner-rock approach to his bass playing that’s very Black Sabbath-ish. So the band has sort of mutated around that a bit." And the fact that there’s still a band at all is something of a marvel to Langevin. After D’Amour died at age 45, Langevin says he wanted nothing to do with Voivod. So the accomplished graphic designer threw himself into other work - designing tattoos, album artwork for other groups, and science-fiction novel covers. "I really thought that people would forget about Voivod - and I almost wanted it that way," Langevin said. "I didn’t really want to be left alone but I didn’t want to think about Voivod too much. "We needed time to mourn the departure of Denis. So our way to deal with Voivod was to be away from it as much as possible for a couple of years. Just so we wouldn’t be reminded of such a tragedy." But eventually, Langevin was persuaded to come back. He read Voivod fan forums on the Internet, listened to the arguments from management and promoters on why the band should continue, and ultimately, was convinced by lead singer Denis (Snake) Belanger. "He told me that if we don’t make a move, the music was going to rot and die," he said. "It’s better to make it live, you know? "It would be a shame if the songs just stayed in a vault somewhere or just stayed on the harddrive in the laptop. So, I’m really, really happy that it sees the light of day but it’s bittersweet to do it without Piggy." Still, Langevin seems excited at the possibilities ahead. Voivod will spend the summer touring, with shows in five Canadian provinces and at least nine other countries, including Mexico, Poland, France, Germany, Norway and Spain. And Langevin says D’Amour wrote and recorded a few songs for a solo record that he and Belanger would like to finish, though probably not under the Voivod name. He’s also toying with the idea of trying to unite all the former living members of the group for another Voivod album, including Jean-Yves (Blacky) Theriault, who is currently touring with the band, and Eric (E-Force) Forrest, who left the band earlier this decade but contributed to "Infini." "What would be great would be one day to write something where everybody would be involved," Langevin said. "It’s still a dream of mine but I’ll try to make it happen." But for now, Langevin says he’s just relieved that "Infini" has finally seen the light of day. "I didn’t know if it would ever exist, ’Infini,"’ he said. "For a while I didn’t even think about going back into the studio to finish it. Finally, it’s out. "So it’s always a feeling of victory over tragedy." - On the Net: www.voivod.net Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |