Infini, the 12th studio album from legendary Canadian prog-thrashers, Voivod, is a bittersweet affair.  On one hand, it represents the final recordings of the late Denis “Piggy” D’Amour, one of the most innovative rock guitarists of all time and so is hard to listen to without thinking of the album as the end of something incredibly original and special.  On the other hand, it’s undeniably as good, if not better, than Katorz, the first album Voivod put together using Piggy’s laptop recordings, which he bequeathed to friend and bandmate, Away, on his deathbed in August of 2005.  The sound is in the vein of the less complicated and groovier Voivod that has been in activity since Jason Newsted stepped into the bass-player role in 2002.  The sonic sci-fi soundscape and social commentary are as intact as they’ve been since the self-title release that heralded the return of the band after an uncertain hiatus and line-up changes.

Heavy, off-kilter, dissonant chords are made all the more ethereal by the fact that they are almost literally being played from beyond the grave.  As far as I know, no other band has ever used technology in this way to record an album (much less two) but for Voivod it is almost fitting.  Standout tracks are “From The Caves”, a short burst of melodic crunchiness with some of Piggy’s strangest leads and Snake’s vocals sounding almost as primitive as anything off of Killing Technology or Dimension Hatross, “Destroy After Reading”, a rare slow track where Snake again shines with evocative throat-shredding shouts and menacing growls.  In fact, the story of Infini, besides being Piggy’s swan song, is that Snake probably delivers the performance of his life here.  The lyrics and vocals highlight the pain and anger that Snake and his bandmates felt after losing their close friend and musical ally and he lashes out at the world and it’s hypocrisies and 21st Century lameness, sometimes with clever metaphor and sometimes, as in “KRAP Radio”, shooting straight from the hip.

Drummer extraordinaire, Away, as usual keeps things moving with his solid and highly underrated and unappreciated rhythms.  Michel “Away” Langevin belongs in the upper echelon of rock drummers - I’m talking up there with Dave Lombardo, Neil Peart and Gene Hoglan.  The man is simply amazing (Lars, take note - just ’cause you’re in your 40’s now is no excuse to get lazy and sloppy).  And, of course, Away’s awesome artwork adornes the cover of Infini - simple and classic.

Recently the band has been touring and performing live with original bassist, Blacky, which is a wonderful treat for long-time Voivod fans, but let’s not forget Jason “Jasonic” Newsted who contributed the bass tracks to Infini, as well as Katorz and the self-titled 2003 album.   The bass sounds and styles of Blacky and Jason are world apart, but both are meritorious and sound great in the context of their given recordings.  Jason’s bass here is the fat, thick low-end of a rabid Bantha trodding across an unsuspecting Tusken Raider camp (the sci-fi metaphors just come naturally when reviewing a Voivod album).  The heaviness of the bass contrasts nicely with Piggy’s weird chords and flights of six-string imagination.  All in all, Infini is a fitting tribute to, and a fantastic farewell from Denis D’Amour.

Will this be the final Voivod album?  If asked that a few months ago I would have said “of course - how could they do another album without Piggy?”.  But a while back, Voivod recruited Dan Mongrain, guitarist for fellow Canadian band, Martyr, and a long-time friend of the band to fill in for Piggy on some live dates.  Since then, the band has been doing the full-on festival appearance/tour and fans seem to be graciously accepting of Mongrain, who had adapted to Piggy’s style quite well.  So who knows what the future holds?  With the recent return of Blacky and the very recent appearance of former vocalist/bassist Eric “E-Force” Forrester on stage with the band, as well as the continued support of Jason Newsted, I’d say in all probability, that we just might be seeing the rebirth of a great metal band.

Life and Death.  It’s all cyclical, you know?

Check out Infini.

Ten out of ten skulls.

Former VOIVOD/current E-FORCE bassist/vocalist Eric Forrest joined VOIVOD on stage at this year’s Hellfest on June 19, 2009 in Clisson, France to perform the band’s classic track “Tribal Convictions”. Watch fan-filmed video footage of the performance below (courtesy of Slaytanic1).

Forrest joined VOIVOD in early 1994 following the departure of original vocalist Denis “Snake” Bélanger. He recorded two albums with the band — “Negatron” (1995) and “Phobos” (1997) — before departing in 2001 when Snake returned. In 2005, he formed his own group, whcih he named E-FORCE after his VOIVOD moniker.

The final studio album featuring founding Voivod guitarist, the late Denis “Piggy” D’Amour has been titled Infini and is set to be released in the U.S. on Tuesday, June 23 via Relapse Records. Many thought that with the last recorded tracks of the beloved Piggy would probably also go one of the most original and innovative bands in metal.  However, that does not seem to be the case as witnessed by several live appearances from the band, featuring long-time friend, Martyr guitarist, Dan Mongrain and the return of original bassist, Jean “Blacky” Yves (Infini features bass tracks from recent Voivodian, Jason “Jasonic” Newsted).  As a fan of the band since their debut, War and Pain, I was skeptical at first but Mongrain has Piggy’s sound down and his addition is a more than suitable homage to the great D’Amour.

Terrorizer magazine’s Jill Mikkelson recently conducted an interview with VOIVOD/MARTYR guitarist Dan Mongrain at this year’s Download festival, which was held June 12-14 at Donington Park, United Kingdom. Watch the chat below.

Anamaria Araya, the older sister of SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, died on June 1 after a 13-year battle with ovarian cancer. She was 55 years old.

Says her daughter Andrea: “First of all, I would like to say thank you for your continued support and comforting words. I appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers and helping hands.

“At this moment I would like to extend an invitation to join my family and I in the celebration of my mom’s life. I’ve found peace in knowing she is resting on a comfortable cloud where she won’t feel any more pain and breathing comes without tubes.

“It’d be nice to share each other’s company at any moment you are able to attend.”

Open Viewing

Thursday, June 4, 2009
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: Rose Hills Mortuary (Visitation Building)
3888 Workman Mill Rd.
Whittier, CA 90601
Enter Park through Gate 1

Rosary

Thursday, June 4, 2009
7:00 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.
(Please plan to arrive a few minutes early)
Location: Rose Hills Mortuary (Visitation Building)
Inside the Mortuary Chapel
3888 Workman Mill Rd.
Whittier, CA 90601
Enter Park through Gate 1

Mass

Friday, June 5, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Location: St Matthias Catholic Church
3095 East Florence Avenue
Huntington Park, CA 90255

For more information, visit www.myspace.com/anamariabenefitconcert.

Anamaria Araya:

Press Pass released preview information for its second set of non-sports cards for the band KISS on Thursday (May 28) with KISS “360″ scheduled for release on August 12.

Each box will include 24 packs of five cards with a suggested retail price of $1.99 a pack with autographed and memorabilia cards from the band’s four original members — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss — included. (Odds still to be determined.)

The “360″ set follows on the heels of the popular KISS “Ikons” set that Press Pass released earlier this year.

There will be a 90-card base set, made up of several subsets — nine “Unmasked” cards, nine “The Demon Speaks” cards where Simmons “reveals the secrets to his success,” nine 2009 cards with highlights from this year, 18 “Behind the Curtain” cards, 12 “Road Stories” cards, nine “Behind Starry Eyes” cards, six “Welcome to the Show” cards and 18 “Albums” cards focusing on, well, their albums.

The insert card lineup will include “Snapshots”, a 12-card plastic insert (1:6 packs), and “Transformation”, a six-card lenticular insert featuring mask on/mask off transformations that will be found one per hobby box. Also returning will be the blood-spitting parallel cards as well as a few other surprises.

Editor: So, where are the SKAB KISS cards?  Tommy Whatsisname?  Eric the New Cat-dude?  C’mon, KISS - still making money off of Ace and Peter…shame on you!

Two new songs from Quebec metal innovators VOIVOD — “Earthache” and “Global Warning” — are available for streaming on the band’s MySpace page. Both tracks will appear on VOIVOD’s final album featuring the group’s late guitarist, Denis “Piggy” D’Amour, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. on Tuesday, June 23 via Relapse Records. The CD, which will be issued in Europe via Nuclear Blast, contains the last thirteen songs written by Piggy and again features bassist Jason “Jasonic” Newsted (ex-Metallica). Jason played bass on all the songs and mixed the album, which will be released as a deluxe, digipack CD and will also be issued on vinyl as a double LP.

“Infini” was built from the final songs created by the band with D’Amour. All his original demo guitar tracks appear as they were recorded — with no re-amping and no overdubs; just Piggy as he played the tracks he envisioned in his small bachelor apartment, the amp in the bathroom, capturing his performance with the laptop given to him by Jason.

Carlos Ramirez of Noisecreep recently conducted an interview with VOIVOD drummer Michel “Away” Langevin about the the unorthodox recording process behind the making of the album and playing live with another guitarist. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Noisecreep: Does “Infini” consist of the last batch of material the band wrote with Piggy?

Away: Yes, there is a collection of tracks that Piggy was writing for a solo record and some of those are very “Voivodian” so we’ll see if that comes out but “Infini” is stuff we had written together. We demoed so much material back in 2003 when we were rehearsing for the Ozzfest tour. We left Piggy’s stuff from those sessions because he did a great job and even double-tracked his guitars so it was easy to keep them. We did have to re-record the bass and drums because the recording quality was so poor. When Snake was tracking his vocals, he was mostly just putting down melodies and little ideas like that.

Noisecreep: How much of the music changed when you went in to record the final version of the album all of these years later?

Away: The main thing that was changed was Snake’s lyrics. Like I mentioned, he didn’t have all of the words for everything yet when we were demoing with Piggy but even the songs that did, he changed. He felt like the lyrics he had in 2003 didn’t mean as much to him anymore. He wanted things to be current. I know there are moments on this album that deal with what happened to Piggy and the loss we felt. We were more than just bandmates for so many years, we were also close friends so that had to be in there. In terms of the drums, I also felt like some of the beats I had originally recorded sounded a bit dated. I wanted “Infini” to reflect my current drum style more so that changed too.

Noisecreep: VOIVOD has always had striking album artwork. What can we expect this time around?

Away: It’s very spacey, old-school sci-fi looking actually. I went online and got some cool NASA photos and incorporated them into the layout. I made a collage with some of those images and it came out looking really cool. The actual cover has the gas mask I have been using for the last few albums. I wanted to develop an identity that went along with Jason joining the band so since the self-titled 2003 album, I have used the same logo and the gas mask thing for the imaging.

Read the entire interview from Noisecreep.

“Infini” track listing:

01. God Phones
02. From The Cave
03. Earthache
04. Global Warning
05. A Room With A V.U.
06. Destroy After Reading
07. Treasure Chase
08. Krap Radio
09. In Orbit
10. Deathproof
11. Pyramidome
12. Morpheus
13. Volcano

Total running time: 57:57

Rachel Jablonski of Stream Of Consciousness recently conducted an interview with acclaimed Canadian musician/producer Devin Townsend (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, STEVE VAI, LAMB OF GOD, DARKEST HOUR, GWAR). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Stream Of Consciousness: “Ki” is the first of four albums in a series by the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT. Each album will consist of a different collection of session musicians. How did you choose musicians for these albums? Were they people you knew or did you approach them individually without a prior relationship?

Devin: Some of both, I guess. I tend to find in my musical world people end up appearing and I’m pretty good at being able to discern right away whether or not they are going to be appropriate based on their personality. I think that the world is full of really, really good musicians, but that’s not necessarily my motivation for having people involved. It’s more how they contribute to the scene as a person. I could definitely do any of these records just sitting by myself in front of a computer and I think what makes these records interesting, not only for me, but for a listener, is to kind of know about that depth of the personalities that are in it. Each theme on each one of these records requires a different sort of folk, right? Like, “Ki” was definitely the meeting of one world with another, and so the people that it involved were definitely from a different world, and how the record ended up evolving and the energy that the record ended up having, I think, was definitely contributed to by the personalities that were involved. Same with this next record. The next record is a very specific group of people and I think I’m in a position that I’m able to make records and so with that I just choose to make each one of them an event for me personally. And then, when the record is done, I can listen back to it and say, “OK, well, I’m really glad that we went through this, we went through this group of people and we had these experiences, and I changed as a result of these people and vice versa.” And then when I listen back to the record it just offers me a depth to it that wouldn’t be there if it was just me and a drum machine.

Stream Of Consciousness: What is the overall theme of “Ki” and what is the theme of the entire album series? Do they all relate thematically?

Devin: Yeah, loosely. I mean I definitely didn’t set out to make a “Dark Side of the Moon”- or an “Operation: Mindcrime”-type of concept record. The thing with me is I’m not really a great businessman when it comes to music. I can’t write a song for, I don’t know, PINK, or something, or CHRISTINA AGUILERA. There’s no way I could do that; it would just be an abomination. So I just write what I do and the way I write is that music just kind of presents itself according to what my frame of mind is over the time that I have the guitar in my hands. There may be some emotional event or psychological event in my life — it could be anything like moving into a new house — and during that time there’s a series of riffs that I’m working on and then from that point on every time I play that riff it reminds me of that. So when I go to write a record, I just draw on the influences of the time and then in a way it kind of documents it and these four records are no different. In a lot of ways, these four records are just the last three years of my life. I quit smoking pot, I quit drinking, we had a kid, lots of life things, right? The music just ended up evolving based on that and so now in order for me to make room in my head for the next series of music, I just kind of need to get this stuff out. So the theme, I guess, is loosely based on that period of personal change, but at the same time there’s no message or anything. That’s what was going on while I was writing it and the way that I create music is invested in that process.
Stream Of Consciousness: [laugh] Have you finished work on the next albums? When can we expect each to be released?

Devin: Um, I haven’t finished the work on the rest yet, no. They should be released hopefully by the end of the year. I’m right in the middle of the second record now. And, you know, I’m just going to keep pounding it until December and hopefully all the records will be out and we can put out a box set of it next year and then I can move on to phase nine or whatever.

Stream Of Consciousness: [laugh] The next record is a pop-like album, correct?

Devin: Yeah, that’s what it started as, but it has just ended up being a totally crushing metal record with big choruses. [laugh] I mean, I wanted to write a pop record and I wrote a pop chorus and then all of the sudden I tried to write another and I was like, “I don’t want to write this shit,” you know what I mean? It’s like no one’s going to buy it anyway. I mean, my reality scheme as a musician is that I’m a 40-year-old dude with bad teeth and no hair, right? I’m not going to be a pop star any time soon, so I just have to be honest with what I do — what is it that I want to do? Do you really want to write shitty pop music and try to sell it to a bunch of people that you don’t like? Or do you want to just do what comes naturally? And do I like choruses? Hell, yeah! I like choruses and I like pop melodies, so to speak, but the more I tried doing it, the more I realized that how I really wanted to frame all of those choruses was crushing.

Stream Of Consciousness: [laugh] It’s been said that “Deconstruction” will be some of your heaviest music. What makes it so?

Devin: Because the whole idea of “Deconstruction” is deconstructing why we’re attached to heavy music. I put out “Ki” and people want to listen to it, and it’s, like, “This is a really good record.” But there’s a whole network of people that are, like, “No no no no no! We only want heavy music, we only want chaotic music, we only want devilish, horrible, destructive music,” and I’m like, “Well, why? I’ll do it for you, but just tell me why first.” “Because we love it, because we love it.” Why do you love it? Ya know? “Fuck the world, fuck the world, fuck everything, man — only heavy, only metal,” and I’m like, “OK, I’ll tell you what: I’ll make you that record, but I’m going to sing about why we’re liking this music.” Honestly, at the root of it, I think humans are really terrified and I think a lot of people who really love heavy music love it because it’s a way for them to protect themselves. If you put this thing forward and are like, “I’m going to scare people with my music,” then no one’s going to get to the root of the fact that maybe it’s just you that are terrified and that’s your way of protecting yourself, that’s your defense mechanism. It’s one thing to say, “Oh I’m mad at God,” but maybe you’re really just mad at your father, you know? And I think that all these themes… that’s the thing that’s really interesting to me about heavy music now. It’s like, yes, I love heavy music, absolutely, but, man, to think that’s the only thing that I’m able to offer and that’s the only thing that certain people are willing to accept from me? You know, it’s not like I’m pissed off about it, but it’s kind of like, are you sure you really want to know why you really like this with the exclusion of everything else?

Read the entire interview from Stream Of Consciousness.

HardTimes.ca conducted an interview with drummer Aaron Weaver of Pacific Northwestern black metal eco-terrorists WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM on May 19, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Watch the 31-minute chat below.

Wolves in the Throne Room Interview HARDTIMES.CA

Oh the shame.

OK, Adam Lambert did his job, hitting those notes, wearing some cool jacket thing with weirdass arches on it and KISS style platform show and even Gene was entertaining, sticking out his tongue (scaring all those pre-teens watching) and tilting his head back and forth when he sang…

But all I could think of while Paul Stanley pranced around the stage like Janick Gers with his ball cut off was “hey, somebody bought that douche bag’s art“.

I did have the urge to buy a Dr. Pepper.

With a new album due out in July and the recent ’success’ of rocker Slash on American Idol, could Gene Simmons work the ultimate sell out (besides his DR. Pepper ad) and perform with KISS on the American Idol Finale?

Rumored by Rolling Stone to be a backing band for Adam Lambert, an American Idol performance could mark a new low in the seemly new ending saga of KISS. Remember, this is the band that released ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’, obviously to try to jump on the disco train.

SHAME