THIS IS EXCITING (+music)
Well, whaddaya know, it’s my first post here on my first music blog. Welcome me. That’s better.
You can call me Grey or Calla or whatever new nickname I might pick up through this, and I’m here to find new, obscure and exciting music and share my discoveries with you.
Of course, one of the most important things you need to know about this blog is what sort of stuff I’m going to post. I’m planning on keeping it mostly metal (probably a lot of thrash/death/black/prog) and progressive rock/jazz fusion, since those are my main non-classical interests at the moment: however, one of the regular features I’m planning on doing will be my Last.fm free download picks of the (week/month/whatever interval), where I’ll be promoting artists I stumble across and like. Since I try to be open-minded in my search for music, this could literally be anything - a good way for you to become acquainted with genres you never even knew existed.
I can’t think of anything else I need to say for the moment, so without further ado I will post my first track. This is a momentous occasion and nothing but the best would suffice, so I am proud to present to you my favourite band of all time for your delectation: Voivod.
No two Voivod albums ever sounded the same. The French Canadian band has gone from punk-laced, aggressively dystopian thrash to angular, complex progressive metal to softer yet still weird progressive rock to almost psychedelic prog (to even more that I can’t describe without making this sentence ridiculously long) in their almost thirty-year career whilst still keeping their very distinct sound, which owes a great deal to guitarist Piggy’s liberal use of diminished fifth chords (‘the devil’s interval’). Albums are wonderfully full of visions of the worst future you can think of, complimented perfectly by drummer Away’s strange and beautiful artwork, and at least three of them (Dimension Hatröss, Nothingface and Phobos) make up a suite of concept albums about the Voivod, who started out as a post-apocalyptic warrior and scientist and ended up dead and alone.
After Snake, the original singer, rejoined Voivod in 2003 along with Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, the band made what I consider a very strong and promising album (even though no-one else seems to agree with me), and there were expectations of another.
Unfortunately, however, Piggy died two years after this, thus rendering both of my two favourite musicians of all time deceased. I wish I’d had the chance to meet him, because by all accounts he was a lovely person as well as being musically inspiring. He left behind some guitar recordings which the rest of the band made into full songs in his memory, and everyone thought Voivod was over.
(excellent news, though, they’re probably not!)
The three tracks I’ve got for you today are all from out-of-print albums, since the only way you’re going to get these is by download or eBay (for the record, I own physical copies of every album save their first, which I’m trying to decide which version of to buy).
1/ Korgüll The Exterminator - RRRÖÖÖAAARRR
Their second album - sloppily played, badly produced LET’S PLAY AS FAST AS WE CAN thrash, but even when Voivod are aggressive their music’s still bloody weird. This was out in the same year as Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion, Metallica’s Master Of Puppets, Slayer’s Reign In Blood, and it sounds nothing like any of these. This opening track’s brilliant - that lovely audible bass, the number of strange angular riffs Piggy throws into the mix - and although Snake’s vocals aren’t amazing on this album, his accent when he’s speaking English is.
MUSIC TO BE REALLY METAL TO.
If you’ve just listened to the first track, this might come as a bit of a shock. Is this a different band? No, I haven’t put the wrong song up by mistake or anything - listen, there’s that wonderful metallic distorted bass (playing part of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for part of the song, incidentally), the weird riffs, it’s just everything’s been pushed to its breaking point. Snake’s discovered he can sing over the three years separating this and RRRÖÖÖAAARRR and the Voivod has become lost in his own mind, but it’s still the same band.
Well, you should know what to expect by now from Voivod - or rather what not to expect: more of the same. This album followed Nothingface directly, as unbelievable as that seems, and is hated by a lot of fans. Luckily, I love it. There’s such a melancholy, full atmosphere here, a contemplativeness that complements the lyrics (which I take to be about suicide) perfectly and draws your concentration in and in…
Good shit.
