DENIS D'AMOUR (PIGGY) of VOIVOD, R.I.P

[NvmbrsDoom5]

On a very sad note, one of my biggest musical heroes ever, Denis D'Amour (aka Piggy), guitarist for one of my favorite bands of all time, Voivod, died today. Here's the news bit taken from Blabbermouth.net....

VOIVOD guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour passed away Friday night (August 26) at approximately 11:45 p.m. due to complications from advanced colon cancer — so advanced that the disease had spread to his liver. D'Amour slipped into a coma Thursday night and died less than 24 hours later in the palliative care unit of a Montreal hospital, surrounded by family and friends. He was 45 years old.

Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil reported yesterday that D'Amour — who was diagnosed with colon cancer earlier in the summer — first entered the hospital for a routine operation, but several complications led his doctors to suspect more problems. Then the grim verdict was revealed: the cancer, already too advanced, was inoperable.

Many people may never have realised what a tremendous influence this man and his band is/was on me. I started listening to Voivod back around 1987, and I became very obsessed with their sound and their originality. To this day I find lots of inspiration and influence in Denis' writing and playing style. I had the pleasure of meeting Denis on several occasions over the years, and he was always extremely friendly and hospitable. I last saw him in Chicago twice during their last tour a couple years ago, and as always he was friendly and nice, and needless to say he played better than ever. It absolutely devastates me to know that I'll never see him and Voivod play ever again, as they were truly one of the most amazing and criminally underrated bands to have come out in the past twenty five years. Albums like "Angel Rat" and "Nothingface" are amongst my top twenty albums of all time, I can't fathom not being able to see and hear those songs live again, as I'm sure many other fans feel the same. My heart goes out to his family, friends and bandmates. It astounds me as to how all the truly great ones always leave us way ahead of their time.

Playing a show tonight at JJ Kelleys, lots of my good friends will be there, and I hope to get them all to join in a toast to Denis D'Amour, my hero.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Lar

 

[The Spirit Seed]

I just got home from a weekend vacation, to read that Piggy's gone. I had been reading the stories on Blabbermouth that he was sick, but everyone thought it wasn't this bad. While Voivod was never one of my favorite bands (I can tolerate songs here and there), I won't deny their creativity and originality. They influenced a hell of a lot of bands/people. I always heard it as just a lot of noise. Then I got their remastered CD's, which were just a bunch of noise, except louder.

Anyway, losing someone in the metal community, or someone you look up to in general, always sucks. Doc and Piggy are gone, both within the span of a week. Damn does this suck.

Sorry for the loss Lar

 

[Jasonic]

I too was very saddened by this news.
Voivod was one of the first underground metal bands I ever got into.
Dimension Hatross blew me away. I saw them on that tour at the Cubby Bear.
They were so different in so many ways from any other band I had seen live before.

One thing I will always remember about Piggy was that he was always so open and honest about his influences. Like myself, he is a big Pink Floyd fan. I remember being a young kid into thrash and reading Voi Vod interviews, and going "Awesome! Piggy likes Pink Floyd too!!"

This is a very sad loss.

All hail Piggy!

 

[Jasonic]

It was just reported by Drummer AWAY that Voi Vod will complete the next album, using the 25 demo tracks that PIGGY has already laid down in the studio.
Should be interesting to hear.
Sadly, the passing of PIGGY will make this a successful release.
Very underated band.
For those who don't know, my screen name here is actually a Voi Vod reference, as Jason Newsted's moniker in Voi Vod is "Jasonic"