My review from
www.voivodfan.com
January 2nd 2003
So I've listened to the new Voivod 3 song sampler CD for two days now. My first impressions were "this is commercial metal/rock". Not complex, not heavy, not a new direction. These three songs would fit nicely on Angel Rat (except these songs are better produced). Snake is kind-of back, he is singing, not yelling too much, I think some reverb is needed on his voice (to make it sound like he is singing in space). I have read a lot of Voivod fan reviews posts on voivodfan.com, chophouse and voivod.com. Not very much excitement so far. Like myself, it seems as though fans are searching and carefully listening to the songs to try and find some good things to say. I'm sure many of you remember your first impressions of Nothingface, it was a classic after the first 60 seconds.
Gasmask Revival: ( Bad ) This song is "Panorama II". Its a blues rock song with a standard boring riff (but the second riff is better) and the bass notes are a faster version of the dull plucking like the bass on "Enter Sandman". Drumming is good. This song is TOO simple, different rehashes of the same riffs with different drums are all over the song. Angel Rat fans rejoice.
Rebel Robot: ( OK ) This song is the heaviest of the three. Has a slight Negatron/industrial feel (double kick parts). Snakes voice is kind of weird, he seems like he is whiny a little? But I guess whiny and weird are "in" these days. I can picture this song having a video on MTV, the kids today would like this one, heavy parts, goo goo doll-ish, memorable chorus (which I hate) and there is also a slow hooky outro ("matrix in everyone"), that you can bob up and down or dance to. The structure of this song is a regular verse, then a heavy frenzied double kick part with snake yelling, piggy's screaming guitars and then a catchy slow 'singy' chorus. Could pass for nu-metal. Anyway, out of the three songs, if I had to pick a favorite, this would be the one, but I still really hate the chorus.
We Carry On: ( OK to Bad ) On this song's beginning you can get a good idea of the nice distortion that Jason has. The bass sounds best in this tune. Riffs are ok, but this is still another rock tune that is clearly aimed for radio play. Some cool chords in parts of this song. I actually had this damn song's chorus stuck in my head last night when I was trying to sleep. That's annoying.
I understand that these songs are chorus-verse-chorus and are probably written for radio/video play. Like many, I am hoping the other 10 songs are more like Nothingface on steroids. Also don't expect any 17 min. songs, with CD space they will ALL probably be 4 and a half min. long. If I heard any of these songs on the radio and I knew it was Voivod I would NOT be in a hurry to go out and buy it. I do hope Voivod finally make some money though. Now let me go back to listening to Napalm Death, until March 4th.
warcorpse
