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VOIVOD
The Wake

Century Media (2018)
Rating: 9/10

I don’t 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 – that’s not a brace of facts I’d ever thought I’d 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.

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

Eight tracks are offered up; deliciously served with those ever recognisable Voivod mechanics, mostly in the form of Michel “Away” Langevin’s deft and yet destructive percussions and Denis “Snake” Bélanger’s sneers and slurs. Again, it’s classic Voivod, although it could be argued that the “classic” Voivod sound has never truly been found due to the ever-changing nature of this colossal beast.

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 ‘Spherical Perspective’ being a prime example of such tender yet interstellar motions and such visionary, cosmic drifts are what we’ve come to expect from Voivod.

But it’s 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 ‘Always Moving’ and sharp corners of ‘Obsolete Beings’. The latter trundles in typical, and yet not so typical Voivod fashion, but harkens back to the multi-coloured voyages of Angel Rat (1991), as Away’s drums kick and Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain’s guitars rumble with punk edge to a rattle of Dominique “Rocky” Laroche’s tight bass plucks.

The Wake 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 ‘Iconspiracy’ where the crafty combo nods towards the rawer flusters of Killing Technology (1987) by merging that infectious, alien punk with complex thrash boosts. Indeed, the ghost of Denis “Piggy” D’Amour lurks in Chewy’s guitar work. And that’s a huge compliment from me, because while Chewy has his own style, he effortlessly fits into Voivod’s framework of angular quirks.

‘Event Horizon’ 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 “too much”. Voivod’s neo-classical segments are just as caustic and accessible but remaining embedded in those sci-fi nuances. This is exhibited on ‘The End Of Dormancy’, where suddenly I’m experiencing something akin to the 1956 movie Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, 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!

‘Orb Confusion’ is a post-punk, conspiracy-bathed masterpiece fuelled by dissonant riffs, while the epic ‘Sonic Mycelium’ is Voivod at its most expansive and pretty much marries together everything you’ve heard on the previous seven tracks and spits out one colossal heap of extra-terrestrial vibrancy.

For me, The Wake is one of Voivod’s 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.

Neil Arnold

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