Slug Magazine recently caught up with Voivod guitarist Dan "Cewy" Mongrain, who joined the band in 2008 following the death of co-founder Denis "Piggy" D'Amour, who lost his battle with colon cancer, in 2005. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Slug: How did the band recover from Piggy’s passing? I imagine it took time to heal, but Target Earth was a strong output from the band—I actually have a poster for it hanging on my wall. What did the band need to do to get in that similar musical mindset to fill the void of the loss of Voivod’s founding member?

Chewy: "I can’t imagine how hard it was for Snake and Away. As a fan, I was very saddened. I met Piggy a couple times. He was my mentor, my hero and he was very nice to me. I can’t speak on their behalf, but here we are, still celebrating Piggy every time we play together. As for composition: at the beginning, I was pretty nervous to write songs. I wanted it to be what I would like to hear from a fan perspective … then I just let it go … I know that the Voivod’s influence is in my veins. I’ve listened to them from age 11 … I grew up and learned to play guitar with their music. So I just stopped being  stressed and write the most naturally and spontaneously I could, and that is the way I still do it. When we played the riffs in the jam space, it was not long until we felt the songs were really Voivod songs. Piggy is probably looking at us from somewhere in space."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Voivod’s Post Society EP is out now worldwide, available in digipak CD format as well as digital download, via Century Media Records. The band are currently still on tour across North America together with Vektor and Black Fast, but are now already announcing some next dates for the US/Canada, together with King Parrot and Child Bite in May/June as well as festival dates for July/August for Mexico and Europe. The band’s live itinerary can be found below.

The Post Society EP, with artwork by Voivod drummer Michel “Away” Langevin, contains five studio tracks, including the previously vinyl-only new Voivod songs from the split 7” EP’s with label-mates At The Gates and Napalm Death, two brand new songs and a Hawkwind cover (“Silver Machine”) total playing time of 30 minutes. Order at this location.

Post Society EP tracklisting:

“Post Society”
“Forever Mountain”
“Fall”
“We Are Connected”
“Silver Machine”

“Post Society”:

Tour dates:

May (with King Parrot, Child Bite)
26 - Denver, CO - Marquis Theatre
28 - Las Vegas, NV - Vinyl / Hard Rock Cafe

June (with King Parrot, Child Bite)
2 - Los Angeles, CA - The Whiskey
11 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon
13 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre
16 - Edmonton, AB - Starlight Room

Festival dates:

 

July
23 - Mexico City, Mexico - Hell & Heaven Fest

August
12 - Jaromer, Czech Republic - Brutal Assault
13 - Leeuwarden, Netherlands - Into The Grave Festival