VOIVOD STILL LIVES!!!!

TORNADO....or at least half of it. I wish I was there.

In a wonderful case of victory overcoming tragedy, VOIVOD still lives. The second batch of tunes that Piggy left behind for the band just came out. Called INFINI, at first I wasn't sure what to think. It is hard to dismiss anything by these guys since they are one of my favorite bands ever, and I found myself almost doing that with these tunes. Jason Newsted i.e. "Jasonic" is a really cool guy and must be thanked for helping these guys as much as he has but the fact remains for me that the Jason version of Voivod (Mark 3) is still with retrospect the least satisfying of all of the bands lineups..doesn't mean that it is bad stuff. Far from it, a handful of tunes on each of the previous three records are quite good, but "Negatron" and "Phobos" the records from the band's trio phase with Eric Forrest on bass and vocals are waaay better and I think more people will come to that conclusion as time passes. I just discovered how good "Bio TV" from "Negatron" is while coming to this conclusion.

Anyways, INFINI is probably the best of the last three records. Jason Newsted gets a chance to flex some creative muscle a bit more with his oddball interludes between Piggy's songs, Snake sounds a lot more confident on these tunes, Away plays admirably as usual and of course Piggy's weird atonal guitar shines through. The record is for sure a grower, and if this is the last VOIVOD release, it is not a bad way to go out.

Or is it really the end? More exciting to me then the release of INFINI is the fact that Snake and Away are still continuing VOIVOD as a live band with the addition of original bassist Blacky and "living around the corner all of this time" guitarist Dan Mongrain. Oddly enough, Dan loved VOIVOD and Piggy before he ever learned how to play himself, and based on watching videos of the band he is the perfect addition to the band. He just needs a Morgoth type nickname..maybe "Curly"? Anyways, these guys should carry on..why not? No one wants them to go away and they are finally FINALLY getting the respect that they deserve. They should write a record with Dan. They have
already talked about it. Piggy would have been proud.