NOTHINGFACE

I like to play guitar. I can say I'm guitar oriented guy and I always pay precise attention to what guitarists play on albums. Denis D'amour was (RIP) one of the most original guitarists on this planet. This album is Voivod's technical peak. But not only that was very important. This time production of Voivod album is better than ever before. The sound is clear and you can easily hear every fantastic tune played by Denis. The Unknown Knows hits you with its avant-grade metal riffs and your world changes within seconds. Everything is upside down and I can't really describe the feeling I have when I listen to this album. Title song is a bit more experimental than first track but still very good and riffs seem to hang in the balance. Denis used very tiny strings saying he wanted to leave whole bass space to bass guitar. A lot of his parts he plays on strings 1-3 so the effect is amazing. He cracks good solos as well and perfect example is Missing Sequences which is incredible piece of true progressive metal music. X-Ray Mirror is one of the most complex pieces in the set but to be honest they are all pretty complex. But X-Ray Mirror has that riff that seems to bring you nowhere when in fact it's still in kind of consequent structure. Inner Combustion is the shortest track on this release and that territory was explored more on the next album Angel Rat. You don't expect surprises but Denis amazes you once more in Pre-Ignition. I guess he had to listen a lot to Van Der Graaf Generator albums. The invasion of strong avant-grade sounds hits your ears. I can't describe it so you have to hear it. For the first time I thought it's kind of cacophony but later I realised he cared for every note in this part. Pure genius. Into My Hypercube is more relaxing song but of course don't expect pop metal or something like that. It's still Voivod just in Pink Floyd veil. And if we talk about Pink Floyd the most famous tune of this album was of course cover of Astronomy Domine. It's not much different from original version just the sound is better which is obvious cos Voivod recorded this album in late 80's. And Denis was right saying he still plays the same kind of music no matter if it's ripping thrash of War and Pain or this progressive metal of Nothingface. It's something between blues and jazz. Just the form differs cos here parts are more complex. Sub-Effect as for the finish. Excellent piece of music. Like the whole album. But not only Denis D'amour deserves applause. Whole band plays great and Denis Belanger exposes softer side of his voice what fits perfect here. To me Nothingface is the best guitar oriented album ever. And I'm not talking about solos. Every good guitarist can play solo. Construction of those chords is excellent. Pure genius as I said. True masterpiece and one of the best albums of all times. 6 stars.