Canada's pioneering metal band VOIVOD, whose last performance took place on July 30, 2003 in Florida during that summer's Ozzfest tour, will make its trimphant return to the stage on June 22, 2008 as part of the Heavy MTL festival in Montreal.
The group has issued the following update regarding its upcoming activities:
"A lot has happened since the band's last live appearance. The band had taken time off to begin writing what would become the album 'Katorz'. In April 2005 while the new album was in progress, guitarist Denis 'Piggy' D'Amour became ill before recording began and sadly died of colon cancer. It took awhile to recover from the sudden passing of Denis before Michel 'Away' Langevin, Denis 'Snake' Belanger and Jason 'Jasonic' Newsted could begin to assemble the songs from the demos and create 'Katorz'. Discussions of a tribute show and possible guitar players for it followed, yet it just did not seem right to perform without Denis, but time does help heal wounds and this summer VOIVOD feel it is time to perform the music Denis helped create once more.
"On June 22, VOIVOD will perform in Montreal as part of the Heavy MTL festival and July 26, 2008 in Calgary for the Monsters Of Rock festival with original bass player Jean-Yves Theriault ('Blacky') for the first time in 17 years. Dan Mongrain from the Quebec band MARTYR, a good friend of the band, will play guitar. Songs from the early catalogue will be the focus for these short festival sets.
"Jason Newsted is still very much part of the VOIVOD family and is working with the band on the new record (also constructed from the 2004 demos) along with Jean-Yves Theriault and Eric Forrest. However, Newsted is unable to perform live at this point.
"Denis and Michel are determined to play more shows in the future to celebrate Denis 'Piggy' D'Amour's legacy."
