INFINI

I've been tormenting myself ever since I got this album through a Flac download from the SonicUnyon store

I want to rave about it. I want to rev up the band's fan base. I want tech metal fans to pick up on it.

That's the easy part. The hard part is how I'm going to put that in a review.

SO here goes - the guitar tracks are more aggressive than most of the band's output except for War & Pain and Roaaarrgghh. Almost gone is the streamlined metal that pervaded the earlier Jasonic albums. I even had to double check the credits because I thought Blacky was back !

The band are back to the Nothingface / Dimension Hatross attitude but with a certain rawness that wasn't present back then. Piggy's dissonant jazz chords are back. Snake shows that you don't need to growl like a cookie monster to sound menacing.

And as much as I would love to present a piece by piece review, I can't . Simply put, whenever I put it on to write about it, I find myself getting lost in the music .

Run, don't walk to your computer. WHOOPS, you're already there! If you're a hard core fan, and now realize you can't wait, SonicUnyon has a Flac download that includes everything that comes with the actual CD. And for $12CAD.

If you're a tech metal fan who's curious, check out the streaming songs on their site - you'll want to get it ! www.voivod.com

This is definitely a must hear for tech metal fans this year. Support the underdog, support the ''Vod, and pray that they come to my town

Infini is the twelfth full-length studio album by Canadian progressive heavy metal act Voivod. After guitarist Denis D'Amour´s ( Piggy´s) untimely death from colon cancer in August 2005, the three remaining members of Voivod opted to continue and finish the album they had started to write at the time using the demo guitar tracks that Denis D'Amour´s had been recording for the album. The result was Katorz (2006) which I personally felt was a very weak album and an unsuitable testimony for one of the most influential guitarists in progressive metal. Therefore I was not especially happy when I heard that Voivod had dug up even more demo guitar tracks recorded by Denis D'Amour´s before his death. Using the same studio technique as when they recorded Katorz, I anticipated another weak album and I really wasn´t expecting much from Infini. Infini fortunately proves me wrong. At least partially.

Voivod´s sound on Infini is very close to the sound they had on Voivod (2003) and Katorz. The sound is closest to the former though. A mix of heavy metal, old school thrash metal, alternative rock and progressive rock. Denis D'Amour´s distinct guitar style is as present as ever on the album and Denis Belanger´s vocals also give away the fact that we´re listening to a Voivod album. The biggest difference from Katorz is that the songs are simply better and more memorable and in addition to that the production is warm. The album is a bit too long and towards the end I begin to find the music a bit trivial allthough never bad. The songs are a bit to close in sound for comfort though and a few more experiments would have suited the music well. With pre-recorded guitar tracks that probably wasn´t possible though.

There´s no doubt that Infini is a much better testimony to Denis D'Amour than Katorz, and if you enjoyed the selftitled album from 2003 this should be a sure purchase. They don´t come near the heights of earlier releases though so don´t expect something revalutionary. It´s a good album but nothing more IMO. 3 stars are deserved. RIP Piggy. You´re my hero.

Infini is the second album Voivod recorded after guitar player Piggy's death. The band surpassed my expectations again. I would have imagined they had already used up the best available stuff on Katorz, but Piggy's bag of riffs must have been bottomless.

With God Phones we start with a true highlight, containing a slightly more progressive Voivod with more tempo changes and riff development then what we had gotten used to on the preceding albums. In the quicker parts they almost sound like Motorhead. It's Snake's merit really. He seems to have found his gruff Lemmy-bite back from Dimension Hatross and he really shines again. The Motorhead reference returns on the closing Volcano that has a very Ace of Spades type bass riff.

A string of short and snappy Voivod tracks follows. I can't grasp how they managed to craft such accomplished tracks from a couple of guitar riffs recorded on a PC, but somehow they did it. The songs are a lot more memorable and distinguishable from one another then on Katorz. The material is also more thrashy and dirty. A real improvement over the fairly tame rocking sound of the preceding albums.

This is a fairly long album for this kind of dense chromatic metal, so there are a couple of tracks I tend to skip in order to obtain a more manageable 45 minutes of Voivod. Treasure Chase, Krap, In Orbit and Deathproof tend to be sacrificed for that purpose. With Pyramidome they launch into an impressive final attack with Morpheus and Volcano as absolute album highlights.

A bit too long but a really good Voivod album that finds them in a tasty thrash metal mood. Some of the songs are downright excellent and the overall result averages out to a nice 3 stars.

Although a huge fan of their early material, I must admit I have not listened to any Voivod post Nothingface. So maybe it was a bit of a risk picking up their latest, and most likely last, album. Though I was looking forward to it, I must say I was correct in my original anxiety. This is not a very good album.

It is known that guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour died from cancer several years before this release. It is of course a shame when anyone leaves us, especially a unique musician like Piggy. Truly one of the more unique and unknown guitarists out there. This album was largely a tribute to Piggy, and it was made using riffs he previously recorded and had stored on his computer. That is evident.

While you can hear Piggy's unique sound, this is frankly a poor album. There is not much progressive about this album at all. It is largely thrashy, though as fans of Voivod know even when it is thrashy it is different. Just like on their classic "Nothingface" this album almost never uses tremolo picking or shredding, but instead often chords and jazz tinged guitaring. While some of that great unique sound is here, a lot of these songs are bland.

Global Warning is a standout track. Pretty thrashy, but different sections and some great guitar work, even a solo in there! If someone wants a prime example of Piggy's work this is the song.

Sadly, the next song "A Room with a V.U." is the opposite. It is boring. Though it starts off pretty cool I have a difficult time keeping my attention through the song. This is the case with a lot of the album. Cool moments, but overall songs are weak and frankly it is difficult to really get into a lot of them.

While the music is bit bland, the vocals are awful! Sometimes Denis has a Lemmy type style going on, and that's actually when I like it best! Besides that, the vocals just sound shot. Strained, grinding, shot is really the best way to put it. Also sounds a bit uninspired and forced at times. These things happen with age and abuse, but no way around it, the vocals on this album are bad.

It is a shame because "Destroy After Reading" is another of the better songs musically, but the vocals kill it. I can barely listen.

Morpheus, is another of the stand out songs, and maybe the best on the album. Some actual variation, this song reminds me of classic Voivod. That Piggy guitar work that we love with disjointed, ominous sounding riffs and different sections. You get some slow and heavy, some thrash, and some creepy parts, especially the ending. Great song!

I have mentioned Piggy a lot, and their is a reason for this. His guitar really is the highlight of this album. The drumming is average, the bass work, (though pretty damn good at times) overall is average, the vocals are awful, and while the music may be solid many of the songs are poorly constructed. Oh, and there is nothing really progressive about this album. Unique perhaps, but progressive? I wouldn't say so.

Maybe this is a bit forgivable because hey, they were working with pre made riffs from a computer. Must be difficult to really make much with that. This album serves its purpose well, a tribute to their late bandmate and awesome guitarist, Denis D'Amour. That I appreciate, but unfortunately this is not a very good album. Even if this is partly due to the restraint they chose to work with to make this tribute, the fact stands that is a poor album still. If you listen to it, stomach the bad vocals, and can tolerate the lack of prog, you WILL hear some unique guitar work, and glimpses of really really good music.

Two Stars

R.I.P. Piggy

This very last album with Piggy on the guitar is one of the most diversified albums of the band and though there are some interesting science-fiction conceptual sound samples which connect the songs, this albums has somehow the mood of a compilation album.

It is a very good compilation album without any doubt. Spacey and weird guitar notes during the highlight "Global Warning", diversified changes of styles and interesting elements in "Volcano" or straight rock influences in "Treasure Chase", this album has it all. It is maybe the best album for the newbie's if they want to get introduced to the world of Voivod. There are thrash and punk elements which are connecting to the early works of the band, progressive rock and metal elements which connect to their albums from the end of the eighties and beginning of the nineties, industrial elements and even grunge influences from the mid-nineties and dirty rock and roll influences from the more recent albums.

The only problem is that the album doesn't have its certain own style and uniqueness and there are sadly a few fillers on the album like "Destroy After Reading". If you are ready to accept the cut-to-pieces compilation style in regard and honour to the integration of Piggy's final works, you will discover a very easy to listen "best of" from a great band and a final chapter of another big episode in the world of Voivod.

But don't think that this was the last thing the band has to say. I spoke to the members and they want to continue with the new guitar player "Chewy", they are already trying out some things in the studio and a new chapter may begin.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on October 6th of the year 2010.

I'm on a Voivod kick lately, so I'm writing this review, and the review for the successor,"Target Earth," back to back. As others have noted, this is the 2nd Voivod album to be released after the untimely death of veteran guitar genius Denis D'Amour AKA Piggy. But nonetheless, his guitar work is still featured prominently on this album due to posthumous use of guitar tracks he had laid down prior to his death. Musically, this album is sort of a halfway return to proggy form for Voivod; it mostly sounds like a blend of Hatross era Voivod, earlier Clutch, and Queens of the Stone Age. As such, it may not be of interest to prog heads at large, but more open-minded Prog Metal fans, and, for sure, Voivod fans should be able to find a large chunk of this album to their liking. That being said, it is a mixed bag, with tracks like God Phones, Global Warning, and Morpheus being decently solid additions to the band's repertoire, and others, such as From the Cave and, ugh, Destroy After Reading, not so much. But as a fan of the classic Voivod era, there's enough of that unique, one-of-a-kind Voivod sound here to make me happy inside. Moreover, this album is a harbinger of good. things to come.

1) God Phones-4 2) From the Cave-2 3) Earthache-3.5 4) Global Warming-4 5) A Room With a VU-3.5 6) Destroy After Reading -1.5 7) Treasure Chase-3 8) Krap Radio-2.5 9) In Orbit-2 10) Deathproof-3 11) Pyramidome-3.5 12) Morpheus-4 13 Volcano- 2.5

3 stars overall