WAR AND PAIN

The melding of science fiction to black metal was never a good combination but Voi Vod went for it with no holds barred crunching guitars and caustic vocals. This one blew me out of my skin during the huge metal hiatus, the golden era when metal was king during the mid 80s. I had this on vinyl and used to thrash it in the 80s during the birth of the heavy metal revolution when the 80s Metal gods unleashed thier hordes. I grew out of this type of music indefinitely after the initial excitement of new metal kicked in and ultimately died. But I remeber how I listened to that slamming guitar riff of War and Pain so much I was virtually consumed by its power. That was then. Now, as a proghead I have different feelings toward this. It is pure noise but nothing else. The riffs are easy to play and over simplified, and the vocals are nauseating. The themes delve into purile post-apocalytica meets cyber-punk dystopia.

Check out those metalitia lyrics of War and Pain!

In the smoke of the combat, The bombs fall by your side, No gods give you the guts, You see the fire in the sky, Let me free, let me run, I put the powder in my gun, I. run, kill and fight, Armed with swords and hash, I remove the knife in your sore, I believe in the death's call, You die for fire, burns in flames, I live to kill, create war and pain, Our disaster is not complete today, We make no defense because You fall in fate, The war punishes, and the war resists, We're going to hell tonight,

Ok, if that's what floats your boat, be my guest - but this is really the type of dross that was churned out off the metal machine in the 80s and has no place now and feels very outdated and childish.

If you want great prog style Voi Vod you are better off to move to later entries such as 'Nothingface' or 'The Outer Limits'. The debut is not very prog and is really just a noise - It may plaster you to the wall, but then again so would a jackhammer. This album is only for collectors so tread carefully among the hallowed ruins of the 80s metallution, for among the greatness there was so much mediocrity.