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KATORZ

Voivod

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal


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Voivod Katorz album cover
3.10 | 79 ratings | 8 reviews | 10% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 2006

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. The Getaway (3:58)
2. Dognation (4:06)
3. Mr. Clean (4:16)
4. After All (4:44)
5. Odds & Frauds (4:50)
6. Red My Mind (4:41)
7. Silly Clones (3:18)
8. No Angel (5:06)
9. The X-Stream (4:58)
10. Polaroids (5:08)

Total Time: 45:11

Line-up / Musicians

- Denis Bélanger "Snake" / vocals
- Denis d'Amour "Piggy" / guitar, Fx
- Jason Newsted "Jasonic" / bass, vocals
- Michel Langevin "Away" / drums, percussion

Releases information

Denis D'Amour died before the album was completed; vocals, bass and drums were recorded over his guitar demo tapes.

CD The End Records ‎- TE-074 (2006, US)

Thanks to dr4wazo for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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VOIVOD Katorz ratings distribution


3.10
(79 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(10%)
10%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(32%)
32%
Good, but non-essential (37%)
37%
Collectors/fans only (16%)
16%
Poor. Only for completionists (5%)
5%

VOIVOD Katorz reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Melomaniac
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Piggy's first post-humous album (apparently there might be more to come) and the guitar maestro left us something good from outer space. Although not as classic as "Dimension Hatross", "NothingFace" or others, it is nonetheless a good album, especially in comparison to other metal contemporaries. Much in the vein of previous outing "Voivod". As with other Voivod albums, a good amount of spins are recquired in order to fully appreciate the scope of this work. Standout tracks after a few spins are : "Red my Mind", "Silly Clones" and "The X-Stream".

Thank you Voivod for doing what must have been a difficult, heartwrenching work. I am sure Piggy would be proud of this one.

R.I.P Piggy !

Review by 1800iareyay
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Katorz marks what will likely be the end of Voivod. While the album was being recorded, founding guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour died of cancer. He was one of the greatest metal guitarists who ever lived, and barely anyone has heard of him. Determined to ensure the fans had one last hurrah, the rest of the band added their parts to Piggy's completed guitar demos and released this album. Like the previous eponymous effort, Katorz is fairly straight-foward, though it contains elements of old. As always, Piggy's fretwork is original and inspired. Jason's Newsted proves a fitting bassist, which is hard considering that the excellent Jean-Yves Theriault once played in Voivod. Away's drumming is great and Snake's vox, though not great, fit the band.

Standout tracks include Dognation, Polaroids, and, of course, The X-Stream. I was so happy when this song appeared on Guitar Hero II, because it's catchy, fun, and perhaps it will teach people who Piggy was.

While all of the songs are enjoyable, it's a bit to straight-forward to call prog, plus it's not the greatest of swan songs. Still, any fan of Voivod should own this album simply because it's the end of the line for one of metal's most challenging acts. R.I.P. Piggy.

Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
2 stars Katorz has a special history as Piggy had passed ( RIP) at this point. He had finished his guitar demoes for the album, and these demoes were used in the studio, which meant a lot of studio techniques were used for this album to come into form. Bass, drums and vocals had to follow the guitar. In my opinion this shows to much. This is not a worthy testimony to Piggy ( My hero).

Katorz seems half finished in places and the guitar isn´t right in my ears. I´ve listened to Piggy play for the last 17 years and I can hear when something is wrong. This is demo material and don´t let anyone tell you differently.

As exciting this experiment seems on paper it doesn´t work. I understand that Voivod wanted to honour Piggy by finishing the album, but what a sad testimony.

I will always remember Piggy for the outstanding guitar work on these 5 albums: Killing Technology, Dimension Hatröss, Nothingface, Angel Rat and The Outer Limits. I´ll forget about this one.

Not essential.

Review by Bonnek
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Katorz is the first of two albums that were recorded after guitar player Piggy's death. Fans will know he had a computer full of recorded riffs, solos and song ideas. By means of tribute to their beloved guitar wizard and friend, the band chose to assemble the available material into songs. And they did a terrific job!

The song writing and style of Katorz is very similar to the 2003 come-back album Voivod, meaning we get an upbeat and rocking version of classic Voivod. The riffs and songs are a lot less progressive then on their masterpieces from the end of the 80's but Piggy's riffs and chords remain an interesting and original feature.

It is quite amazing how natural the songs flow. Given the source of this material I had expected a more disjointed feel and more haphazard transitions in the songs. But no complaints about this at all. Snake's vocals are in better shape then on the preceding album. He still strains his voice but it isn't as grating and tuneless as on the preceding album. Away and Jasonic lay down a solid rhythmic basis.

Every song is good on this album but none strikes me as really remarkable. As such I appreciate it slightly less then Voivod, which suffered from its length, but had more real highlights. A good album for the fans and a worthy tribute to one of the greatest guitar players in metal.

Latest members reviews

4 stars In times of "Silly Clones" of legendary rock'n'roll bands and rock revival times, Voivod contribute in their own unique style to this new trend and create an amazingly fresh rock'n'roll record with ten heavily addicting and straight songs. They are all killers and no fillers and the young and modern ... (read more)

Report this review (#383282) | Posted by kluseba | Wednesday, January 19, 2011 | Review Permanlink

1 stars Tribute as it is, Katorz is a poor album. The album is void of any progressive tendencies, and any hope at hearing any new or innovative music should be put out before listening, because in the way of simplicity on this album, this is basically like Voivod-does-AC/DC. The album basically soun ... (read more)

Report this review (#218937) | Posted by topofsm | Saturday, May 30, 2009 | Review Permanlink

3 stars A very raw album, good, but to "straight-forward" into metal and "simple" to this line-up. Knowing the facts that this is a postumous album, and is recorded with material from the deceased guitar hero you might find out that is more like a tribute (and i think that in the liner notes they say ... (read more)

Report this review (#88558) | Posted by arqwave | Thursday, August 31, 2006 | Review Permanlink

4 stars I'll admit this is a piss-poor review for everyone else, but the Iron Gang will see where I'm coming from. I fell in love with Voivod with the release of "Killing Technology", I am lucky enough to have seem them on their "Nothingface" & "The Outer Limits" tours (On the "Angel Rat" tour; they o ... (read more)

Report this review (#85107) | Posted by Clark Ashton | Saturday, July 29, 2006 | Review Permanlink

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