by Mark Kadzielawa

Voivod are the pioneers of thrash metal. Their first release, War And Pain, secured a very large and dedicated following. Each release continued to get better, and the band was visibly progressing and creating a very distinctive style of their own. One cannot argue with Voivod's strong presence and the influence over the last quarter of a century.
The band formed in 1982 in Quebec, Canada. Initially the band was made up of Snake (Denis Belanger) on vocals, Piggy (Denis D'Amour) on guitar, Blacky (Jean-Yves Theriault) on bass, and Away (Michel Langevin) on drums. Voivod's music continued to evolve over the years. The band released 12 albums so far. Musically, Voivod always pushed any established boundaries, and was never afraid to explore the unknown territories. Along with the music came Away's unique artistic concepts that graced band's album covers and t-shirts. Killing Technology, Voivod's third record marked a serious progression into the progressive side of metal. The band excelled even more on this path on Dimension Hatross and Nothingface. Blacky was the first member to leave the band, and they continued as a three piece with a stand in bass player. Snake left the band a few records later, and was replaced by bass player/vocalist Eric Forrest. Forrest was quickly nicknamed E-Force made two records with Voivod before departing after a terrible car crash. Snake resumed his vocal duties at Voivod in 2001, and the band was joined by Jason (Jasonic) Newsted on bass. This line up lasted for two more records. Piggy's death in 2005 put the band on indefinite hold. Voivod released two more records, Katorz and Infini, with the left over material the band was rehearsing and working on with Piggy. Voivod reconnected with the original bass player Blacky, and recruited Dan Mongrain as the new guitar player. Currently the band is touring all over the world.
Voivod's story is full of ups and downs. One fact however remains the driving force behind this band, is the music. The band's career is far from finished and their contributions to the world of music is priceless.
Vocalist, Snake, talks about assembling together the last two records, and getting Voivod to be an active unit once again.

Voivod is back as a performing band, what was is like to put it back together after Piggy's passing?
Snake: Well, when Piggy died the whole band was shocked. We didn't really know how to manage. At Piggy's funeral we ran into Blacky, and we talked. And one thing slowly lead to another. He had a friend, Dan Mongrain, who was a good guitar player. The fact that we were able to put it together is quite a miracle. The first couple of years after Piggy died, we really didn't see any solution to Voivod. He was such a unique player, and writer, that no one could really come close to that.
I remember Piggy having health problems back in 1988. In fact, you had to cancel a headlining tour. Was his illness related to what he was going through back in 1988?
No, it was completely something new. It was something completely separate from what he previously had. His first cancer attacked his hormonal glands, but that wasn't so bad. He was able to beat it quickly. I mean he managed to survive, taking pills, making records, and touring. That second cancer was a lot more serious. The pills he was taking might have weakened his system, but I'm not sure.
Everyone was caught by surprise when Piggy's passing was announced because no one saw it coming.
It's hard to believe that he is gone.
Piggy's style was incredibly distinctive and innovative. How did you go about replacing him and still maintain the sound of the band?
We've spent a long time thinking about who could possibly replace Piggy. We've had many offers from different guitar players, but we weren't sure if we even wanted to continue back then. We were wondering if it's even worth it? Would the people accept Voivod with a new guitar player? We had no clue who could do this, and do it good. I had no idea who could possibly pull this off. When Dan came over to the rehearsal for the first time I knew he was good, I just didn't expect him to be that good. When we started to practice we wanted to give it a fair try. We didn't know what to expect, really, but when he hit the first chord I started getting goose bumps. Also, we were back with Blacky after all those years, so it really felt like a time warp. Dan was playing exactly like Piggy. We were in that small rehearsal room, and we felt this is a great possibility. It was like a family getting back together.

Is there a chance this line up will write and record new material?
We're thinking about it. Currently we are elaborating on some riffs here and there. We don't want to push it too far and too fast. We don't even want to talk about it because we're not even in the process of doing of writing. We're just collecting riffs here and there. We share stuff now. Eventually it might happen, but as of now we don't need another record. We have a lot of records with Piggy's music on them, and most of the time we are playing less than an hour, so we have enough material to play for six hours. It's not a necessity right now, but eventually we'll have to come up with something. We'll see what's gonna happen.
You've managed to release two albums from the leftover material that Piggy recorded before his passing. Is there more unreleased music waiting to see the light of day?
There is more left, but I don't know if we are going to release it under the name of Voivod. That's still needs to be discussed with Piggy's family. But there is material that he recorded himself, and he actually sings on it. It's more into the alternative rock vein. It's him singing and playing, and it doesn't really sound like Voivod. That material in particular, but he had so many left over tapes. We are still finding tapes here and there, or even people bring tapes that he gave away.
Well, if you really wanted to define Voivod's sound, there really isn't a single definition of it. It's what made the band so unique over the years.
Yeah, but Piggy had a particular tone, and that was very definite. It was always as if he was hitting the six strings all the time.
The last two releases (Katorz and Infini) mark yet another new direction for the band. The music comes across sounding simple at first, but after more investigative listen it appears very complex.
I somehow agree. The thing is, these two albums, which is like 23 songs total were taken from rehearsals and improvisations. We really didn't have anything recorded professionally. It wasn't like we're gonna do another album, and get ready for that. It was taken from an improvisation, and when you do improvisation, you do whatever comes through your head. You're not thinking ahead, you're really taking chances. And all the roots and the background influences come out. Things like Motorhead were our obvious influences, and it comes out very clearly. It was like that, it was not meant to be an album in the first place. But the circumstances turned out to be different, and we had very little choice. It is still good that we managed to release them as official Voivod records.
When Jason Newsted joined the band as a bass player, how did the dynamics change?
I think Jason was waiting for that moment when the stars align and everything would be ready to go. He wanted to do this for a long time, but I was not in the band for a few years. I did a project with Dave Grohl from Nirvana/Foo Fighters. At the same time Voivod's singer, Eric Forrest, wasn't sure if he wanted to continue. They asked me to see if I wanted to do a tour opening for Motorhead, and I agreed. From that moment on, Jason knew that I was back in the band, and for him it was the right time to do it. He invited us into his studio in San Francisco, and from that point we got together as a band.
Jason isn't touring with the band, what is the excuse for his absence?
Well, there are several reasons for that. He injured himself quite a while ago, and he is not recovering well. It was a shoulder injury, and he had an operation. I think it comes from head banging with Metallica for so long. I don't think he wants to really tour anymore. Piggy's death didn't help. I think he did what he could at the certain moment of his life with Voivod. He was still doing it afterwards. After Piggy's death Jason helped us out in many ways. He played on the last record. He didn't want it to end up on the shelf. So, he really helped us all the way through, even lately when we did Infini.
What was it like to reconnect with Blacky? I mean he was out of the band for a number of years.
Blacky is the family guy. He's always been in the band for a long time. He left the band quite a long time too. There was some kind of a friction between him and Piggy, there was a friction between all of us, but Piggy's death brought us back together. We were at the funeral thinking we shouldn't be feuding when it's so insignificant in comparison to the dramatic situation we were facing. He was shocked at the fact that Piggy passed away too. He wanted to sort of like contribute to help putting out Piggy's music. I think that became Blacky's goal after Piggy's death.
When you were not in Voivod, what were you up to?
I did many things. I got involved in a restaurant business. I was operating a restaurant. I think I wanted to get out of the circuit for a while, and experience new things. So I did but afterall I got bored and wanted to music again.
Luckily you found yourself back at the right place, and that's not always possible.
(Laughter) Yeah exactly.
Recently, your first album, War And Pain, came out as a mini box set. Were involved in putting it together?
Oh yeah. We got to the studio and re-mastered the album. It was a really good experience. We felt like we made this album alive again. When I listen to War And Pain it feels strange. I remember it, I remember doing it, but sometimes I think I would do few things different. I would do many things different today because I got more experience. Doing that record was fun, it was very naive thinking on our part, but it was pure in a sense. It was just the beginning of a new thing, so it was fun to get back to it.
As a result, do you find yourself playing some of these songs live?
Yeah, we do a couple of songs. As of now, our set lists included 20 songs that we move back and forth. We skip, and we change, so it's never the same song list.

When you were doing War And Pain, did you think you'd still be around in 2010, and the band would evolve the way it did?
No, I mean of course we had many expectations. Actually, I didn't know what to expect really. In the beginning we were just doing it for fun. Then we took it more seriously. But we never expected to have done what I've done in the past 25 years. For me, it was not in the picture. The dream got more realistic as we went, and we finally had the possibility to play with all of our idols. It finally gets to the point where you're part of the circuit. And you realize after a couple of years that this is for real.
Do you foresee other albums getting similar re-mastering treatment?
Yeah, I definitely do. The one that needs it the most is Rrroooaaarrr because the sound is really awful. It would be great to have all of them re-done soon. Rrroooaaarrr is the most in need to re-mastering.
Also, there was retrospective DVD released few years ago. Was it easy to put together?
Well, it was the matter of trying to figure out where the footage is at, and who owns it, and try to get back the rights to it. I remember Michel went to Music Plus (Canadian MTV,) and he spent many hours in the vault trying to find the tape. It took him a while to do that, but finally he did. The same happened with the footage that we had. We had many filmed shows, so we wanted to get to the people who owned the masters. We wanted to get to the best quality footage, so we did. It came out good I think.
Finally, your personal highlights from the 25 years of Voivod?
There are plenty. I think touring with Rush on the Nothingface tour was an absolute highlight. Playing with Motorhead was always a goal for us. Between those big highlights there small highlights that are cool as well. It doesn't have to involve a superstar. Sometimes just little pleasures of life here and there. The traveling, and seeing the other countries was great too.

Links:
http://www.voivod.com/home