NEGATRON

"Negatron" is the 8th full-length studio album by Canadian progressive/thrash metal act Voivod. The album was released in December 1995 by Mausoleum Records. Lead vocalist Snake left the band after "The Outer Limits (1993)" and as original bassist Blacky had left the band a couple of years earlier (the bass on "The Outer Limits" was handled by session member Pierre St. Jean), Voivod recruited Eric Forrest, who would handle both the lead vocals and the bass playing on "Negatron", making Voivod a three-piece for a while.

Eric Forrest is more of the angry shouting type frontman as opposed to Snake who had a more melodic and punk influenced style and as the music has also taken on a more aggressive thrashy direction the sound on "Negatron" is a far cry from the more progressive/alternative sound of the last couple of albums. There´s a "back to the roots" vibe on the album, but ultimately "Negatron" doesn´t really sound like the early thrash metal releases by the band either. "Negatron" features elements from quite a few music styles including thrash metal, groove metal, industrial metal, alternative metal and some progressive leanings too.

The 11 tracks, 57:24 minutes long album starts out really strong with the opening trio of songs: "Insects", "Project X" and "Nanoman". The latter being the melodic highlight of the album and one of the only times Voivod sound slightly like they did on the last couple of albums. But from there the tracks become harder and harder to tell apart and remember. It´s not that the rest of the tracks are of poor quality or anything like that and listened to one by one they are actually quite enjoyable and powerful material, but as a whole they don´t stand out enough from each other). The closing track "D.N.A (Don't No Anything)" is not easily forgot though and that´s not in a positive way. On that track Voivod goes all the way into industrial territory and fall flat on their face in the process. It´s not a good way to end an otherwise decent album and I find that I have more fond memories of "Negatron" when I simply stop the album before "D.N.A (Don't No Anything)" and imagine that "Drift" is the last track on the album.

I guess my review came out a bit more negative than I had intended, because I actually enjoy "Negatron" quite a bit, it´s just overall a release with very few highlights, one awful track and a too long playing time. It´s grown on me over time and I enjoy the album much more these days than back when it was originally released but I still can´t give it more than a 3 - 3.5 star rating.