| Voivod - Infini |
| Written by Liu |
| Tuesday, 15 September 2009 15:39 |
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Relapse "Any Voivod is better than no Voivod." The above is the mantra that many Voivod fans have been uttering since the untimely death of band founder Denis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005. I have a big problem with that statement, namely because as far as I'm concerned, Piggy was Voivod and thus far, the Piggy-less material has been largely a stain to the great Voivod name. Allow me to state that I consider myself a big Voivod fan. I think that Killing Technology is one of the greatest thrash albums ever conceived, Nothingface is one of the most unsung "progressive" albums ever (or whatever you wanna call it) and can and will discuss at length the merits of The Outer Limits and why it is the best thing the band has ever done. I'm no Johnny-Come-Lately who has discovered the band yesterday. Prior to his death, Piggy had recorded a bunch of guitar tracks for what were to be future Voivod songs and these are the basis behind the songs on Infini (and the previous album Katorz). Herein lies the problem. These guitar tracks, for the very most part, aren't good. At all. They are crap. They are unmemorable, dull and entirely forgettable. This collection of riffs are mere table scraps to the full course goodness that Piggy was capable of. He is well regarded as a guitar god, yet even guitar gods have bad days and most of these were done on many many bad days. Using these pre-recorded tracks has the unfortunate effect of making the album sound utterly soulless and lifeless. Piggy was the heart and soul of the band and using these tracks are but a facsimile of the real thing, like a xeroxed photo of a pizza when you are hungry. It doesn't quite fill you up. Most of these songs are just bad and go nowhere. You're probably wondering if there is anything good I can say about Infini and there is. A few (and I must stress the importance of the word few) of the riffs found on the album sound good. Also the song Volcano does sound like a complete song in what can almost be called a classic Voivod sound (although that is a big misnomer, the band evolved their sound so much that there really isn't a "classic sound"). That song does have a Motorhead vibe to it, but to be perfectly honest, I'll gladly take any latter-day Motorhead over it. Some bits of Treasure Chase sounds impressive, even though the rest of the song fails to follow through. And the cover art... well the cover art is pretty awful. The package is recyclable though. "Any Voivod is better than no Voivod"? How about "no Voivod is better than THIS Voivod"? I think that is more fitting. 01. God Phones 02. From The Cave 03. Earthache 04. Global Warning 05. A Room With A V.U. 06. Destroy After Reading 07. Treasure Chase 08. Krap Radio 09. In Orbit 10. Deathproof 11. Pyramidome 12. Morpheus 13. Volcano Score: 4/10 |
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 September 2009 17:02 |