THE OUTER LIMITS

As a long time Voivodian, it was hard for me to choose an album to review. Why start with "The Outer Limits" you may ask? Simply because I think, even though it is not a "masterpiece", it probably is the Voivod album most likely to please prog rock fans, as it is more a progressive album than a metal album.

The album kicks off with "Fix My Heart", an brilliant, catchy uptempo rocker, showcasing great riffs from guitar-genius Piggy. Not exactly prog, but a great opener for this album.

In "Moonbeam Rider", the prog influences begin to show. Different textures are well amalgamated, and one can begin to grasp the magnitude of Piggy's work, creating all the texures by himself with no (or so little) guitar overdubs. A very good number.

Then comes "Le Pont Noir" (translated The Black Bridge), an eerie number indeed. Reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, King Crimson and The Doors. Again, notice Piggy's playing and songwriting, especially in the part where Snake (vocals) sings "Ooh", the delayed guitar part creates a weird harmony with itself.

My least favorite track of the album, the Pink Floyd cover "The Nile Song" from the soundtrack to Zabriskie Point could have been left out. Clearly not as good as when they covered "Astronomy Domine" on Nothingface, which, in my humble opinion, turned out to be more enjoyable than the original.

Following is my second favorite track from this album, "The Lost Machine". A dark sci-fi tale telling the story of humans trapped in an alien spaceship working as slaves for a machine tha rules them all. Great Piggy stuff here, weird chords that might make Robert Fripp blush with envy at creating something close to that. The music also fits the story line so well.

"Time Warp" has its interesting moments, the middle section in particular, but I find the overall track only acceptable.

And then, my favorite Voivod track ever, THE masterpiece of progressive metal, the 18 minutes epic "Jack Luminous". The story is brilliant : an alien comes to Earth to warn us against an intergalactic tyrant that goes by the name of "President X-D", that he will take over our planet hypnotizing us. He knows, because he fled a conquered world. But, President X-D has been hot on Jack's trail and follows him here, in the end conquering our world. Musically, it is a wonder, Piggy's best guitar work and songwriting ever to grace a recording. King Crimson again springs to mind, but a King Crimson light years ahead of what we know (even after hearing The Power to Believe). This track alone is well worth the price of the album.

"Wrong-Way Street" is another upbeat rocker, not exactly original compared with te rest of the album, but nonetheless a decent track.

Album closer "We are not Alone" closes the album with style and speed, the most metal track of the album along with Jack Luminous.

With this album, Voivod completed the transition from generic thrash metal band (first two albums) to cyber thrash prog metal (Killing Technology, and two excellent albums, Dimension Hatross and cornerstone NothingFace) to prog hard rock band (Angel Rat and this one), before returning to their roots with the following album "Negatron", almost becoming a death-metal act (after Snake's departure), blah blah blah and so on.

A good place to star a Voivod collection, as much as Angel Rat is.

R.I.P. Piggy, probably the most creative, original and influent guitarist in the history of metal.

To purchase without doubt. Thanks for taking the time to read me !