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Voivod - War And Pain CD (album) cover

WAR AND PAIN

Voivod

 

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal

3.05 | 110 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

slipperman
Prog Reviewer
4 stars I don't really care for ratings, whether they be stars or numbers or whatever, and this album is why: 'War And Pain' is a masterpiece of dank, dirty, apocalyptic war/black/thrash metal. Should www.progmetalarchives.com ever come to be, it would be a 5. In the realms of www.progarchives.com, which holds bands to an admittedly different standard, it is a high 3. Ultimately, it's one of many albums that defies the strict box-categorization of ratings. Numbers and ratings don't really mean anything here. I give it a 4, just to split the difference. But see my final paragraph, as this is not for everyone.

This was only the beginning for Voivod, and the fact that they cruised into cold, mechanical, technical, atmospheric progrock-meets-metal in 4 short years from 'War And Pain' is proof enough that Voivod are a modern day prog band. They broke boundaries and went where no metal band had gone before. Here, in the world of war and oppressive pain, things teeter between a Motorhead-ish sort of noise/sleaze rock ("Suck Your Bone", "Blower") and the post-armageddon hell of "Nuclear War" (the long epic of the album). Snake (vocals) is completely unhinged and unintelligible, aided by the roaring mess of Blacky's bass and Away's thunderous, cataclysmic pounding. Guitarist Piggy was the real innovator. He's the one responsible for the vast majority of Voivod's riffs and structures--it was already clear on this album that his style was unlike any other. It was fluid, yet untamed. It was dissonant, yet held up the melodic standard of the best traditional metal. And in the soundscape moments of songs like "Voivod" and "Nuclear War", it was clear he was only scratching the surface of his arsenal of unique effects.

Is this album True Prog? No way. Is it the beginning of a band who produced some of the greatest late '80s/early '90s prog? Hell yes. Caveat to progrock fans who don't like metal, but anyone else interested in this peculiar band's peculiar evolution, this is essential for the library and study of this ever-intriguing band.

slipperman | 4/5 |

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