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VOIVOD
Voivod Lives
Metal Blade Records
It's been almost seventeen years since Canadian thrash pioneers Voivod decided to start destroying our eardrums with space opera metal laden with flashes of progressive and punk. With "Voivod Lives", their first live album, Voivod, shows that the multi-textured nature of their work translates just as well to an arena audience as it does with their studio work. For some reason, even when chatting to the crowd about futuristic nano-technology lead singer ands bassist Eric Forrest sounds like a surfer dude, but it's amazing that he's still on stage at all after a horrible van accident in 1998 that doctors didn't think he'd recover from.
Fearless in their lyrical pursuit of science fiction themes and musical diversity, their live show moves from hardcore ("Tribal Convictions") to grungy metal ("Ravenous Medicine") to punky (the awesome "The Prow") without blinking. Weird but cool, Voivod's psychedelic blend comes through lacking nothing in live performance, but it leaves the question, why bother? The songs don't sound that much different live, aside from a little more energy and the lyrics being slightly harder to understand. There's not much for extended jams and the emotion of the music doesn't come off quite as clearly. Studio production is where these guys shine and for a band that creates images and atmospheres of alternate dimensions, the live setting doesn't let them be quite as interesting. Still, Voivod fans will want this album because it is their only live document, but music lovers new to the band are better left picking up their 1989 watershed, "Nothingface".
Mike Huberty |
