OFF: Voivod

[C Mumford]

Hi all,
Well, I managed to catch Voivod playing here in Oslo last night,
and it was the most enjoyable show I have been to in a while.
Plenty of these Nordic black metal lads, seriously banging away
and keeping the art of chiropractics alive...(and the most
hilarious opening act I ever saw... Satan would crack up (as I did)
upon hearing snarled titles from the sincerely bare chested, pale
young man screaming such titles as "Wretched Face of Evil" or
"Deep Tracks Of Hell", and putting on his best grimace!!!)

Anyway, VOIVOD finally came on, maybe off to a little uninteresting
start, but things really peaked when they played "Astronomy Dominy"
and "Tribal Convictions" - Michael Langevin is an awesome drummer!! :-)
I spoke to him a bit afterwards, and since I was wearing a HW shirt
he gave me a good deal for both their new CD and T-shirt!!! (see?
Hawkwind have yet to buy me a free lunch tho (or Doug Smith buying them
one? :-) He spoke a bit about his musical influences, of which Van
Der Graaf Generator and Magma were his biggest... his cheeky parting
comment was even "I am the Christian Vander of metal!". Also the new
songs are great, I didn't care for their last album "Negatron" too much,
but "Phobos" is very cool indeed. There's also a great cover of King
Crimson's "21st Century Schitzoid Man" at the end...

Anyway, the reason I am posting about Voivod here is that they definetly
play a skewed, unique sounding, SF oriented brand of psychedelic, spacey,
industrial/prog thrash/metal, and they appeal to the part of my brain that my
HW receptors are connected to... "Phobos" is a great spacey album with less
industrial tinge than the last, with a sound closer to albums like "Dimension
Hatross" or "Nothingface" (but not as 'prog' as "Outer Limits" or "Angel
Rat").
I mentioned to Langevin that Voivod should play at the next Strange Daze - he
seemed a little baffled that there even exists a "space rock" scene... in a
weird way I think they fit in there.

Christian