RRROOOAAARRR!!!

I’ve heard far better speed metal albums out there. This one just doesn’t have the intensity of Exciter’s first two albums or the catchiness of Grave Digger’s “War Games” or the riff overload of Running Wild’s “Gates To Purgatory” or the occasional wicked riffery of Agent Steel’s “Unstoppable Force”, not to mention the magnificence of Razor’s “Executioner’s Song”. This album is just a sloppy and plodding speed metal release full of rejected, recycled riffs and a Cronos´ impostor as vocalist.

This one has few good riffs, lots of half-assed to boring and eminent forgettable riffs and not even one awesomely riff.

On this first few albums, we can deduce easily that Voivod played a sloppy Punkish speed metal with clear Venom bits. We have the occasional Motorhead-type of riff, lots of punk moments and the vocalist ripping off Cronos of Venom once in a while: Bah, almost all the time. If you care to listen attentively, then you will find that al the vocal melodies were borrowed (not to say, stolen) from the first three Venom releases.

“Korgull The Exterminator” is quite a good song. It starts mid-paced and then it speeds up halfway featuring a nice Venom worship riff and then, there’s a nice solo in between the riffs. Then we have “Fuck Off And Die” with the vocalist really sounding like a weaker version of Cronos, and then a quite nice main riff which goes into a generic chorus with an underlying generic chorus riff. It’s like a sloppier Venom rip- off. “Slaughter In The Grave” has a quite memorable intro riff but the drums and especially the cymbals are too loud on the mix. The short solos are pretty enjoyable but it does nothing to help this song.

Ripping Headaches is another fast-paced number with a maniacal drumming and some nice Venom-esque guitar leads. I swear I’ve heard those exact leads on “Black Metal” and “Welcome To Hell”. Then the rest of the songs just don't have any sort of coherence. They have a few good riffs but no real way to chain them together. For the most part, the break riffs are just kinda slow or otherwise plodding and unexciting - for example the chorus riff of "Thrashing Rage". Bah. Also, the songs are just far too repetitive - they're all at least 3 minutes and a half long but most only have enough good ideas for about 2 minutes and a half; like old-school Punk Rock (for example, Sex Pistols).

“The Helldriver” has some cool riffs; like if it was a bastard son of The Ramones and Hellhammer. It has the naïve and simple aggression derivative of Punk and the guitar tone reminiscent of Hellhammer. “To The Death!” starts off really slowly and densely and then builds up into an efficient speed metal number with a nice and enjoyable chorus even if a bit silly and predictable. Then, there are two more songs, “Horror” and “Build Your Weapons”, both of them being recycled and sloppy. Really, these songs sound like if they were recorded on the first take and they were too drunk or high on cocaine to play or even care about it.

Conclusion: Do you like Incoherence? I don’t think so. Well, that's the problem with this album - the coherence is gone, with too many silly ideas thrown together without much rhyme or reason. For the most part, “RRROOOAAARRR” sounds like a less talented, less inspired and less riff-oriented Venom album. Only for Venom fans or the die-hard Voivod fan. Absolutely non-interestening for a progman's ears!

album rating: 5/10 points = 48 % on MPV scale = 2/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars