Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators, Voivod, have released their new 3-track 12” vinyl and digital EP, The End Of Dormancy, via Century Media Records. Drummer Michel "Away" Langevin spoke with The Quietus about the release, the band's impending 40th Anniversary, as well as the Voivod album and documentary that are currently in the works.

On the track "The End Of Dormancy"

Away: "The original track was already meant to be like music from an epic film soundtrack, and when we were invited to play the Montreal Jazz Festival last year, we thought it'd be a great surprise to play with a quintet. It was our guitar player Chewy's (guitars) idea, and he's very good at writing scores, so he wrote a part for every member of the quintet. When we performed it at the festival the reaction was really really amazing. So when time came to do this new EP, Chewy thought it'd be a great idea to get the quintet in the studio to overdub over the studio track from The Wake and, again, give it a type of soundtrack atmosphere."

On the new Voivod album

Away: "Before confinement we had done a few sessions at Voivod's studio, so we have a basis to work from. We’re sharing a Dropbox folder (with stems) and syncing them together, trying to build a good demo for a future album. We toured The Wake so extensively that now we are catching up with a lot of projects that were going slowly because of us being on the road all the time. So there is a book in the works, a movie in the works."

On the forthcoming Voivod documentary

Away: "When Piggy (guitars) passed away in 2005, Sam Dunn who made Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey started making a documentary about Voivod and did a bunch of interviews with people like Dave Grohl and Jason Newstead, but we were so busy that everything was put to one side. But we’ve been gathering archive material and now we’re trying to edit everything together, and hopefully it’ll come out next year. We’re trying to move forwards as fast as we can while everybody’s at home, but we really do miss going to the Voivod studio and jamming and improvising."

Read the complete interview here.

Langevin recently checked in with the following comment about the release, but also gave a status update on all other current band activities and upcoming projects:

“It’s always a great day for us when something we worked on gets to be released. These are strange times but we can still move forward! We are presently putting the final touch on an upcoming live LP, along with writing new material for a studio album. We are also planning an online performance at RadicArt Studio on August 9th, 2020, for Snake’s birthday. We toured so much for ‘The Wake’, there is a lot of catching up to be done on various VOIVOD projects, including a book and a movie. In the meantime, enjoy our new “The End Of Dormancy” EP!”

The new EP is centered around a special “Metal Section” version of the title track “The End Of Dormancy” (off Voivod’s latest album The Wake) with added trumpets, saxophone and trombones. The complementary tracks on this release are exclusive live versions of “The End Of Dormancy (Metal Section)” and the group’s classic “The Unknown Knows” recorded at Montreal Jazz Fest 2019.

Order here.

The End Of Dormancy EP tracklisting:

Side A:
"The End Of Dormancy (Metal Section)"

Side B:

"The End Of Dormancy" (Live Montreal Jazz Fest 2019) [09:08]
"The Unknown Knows" (Live Montreal Jazz Fest 2019) [05:08]

 

Voivod are:

Snake - Vocals
Chewy - Guitar
Rocky - Bass
Away - Drums