VOIVOD - Piggy Solo Albums To See The Light Of Day

June 13, 2009, 14 years ago

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In an interview with Voivod drummer Michel "Away" Langevin that will be available at BraveWords.com soon, Away confirmed to BW&BK; scribe David Perri that two Denis "Piggy" D'Amour solo albums were written and recorded before Piggy's unfortunate passing in August, 2005.

"We just want to make sure Piggy's music lives," Away says. "We’re trying to make sure it’s immortalized, at least on CD. Unfortunately, aside from two solo albums that he wrote and recorded in 2004 and 2005, there are no remaining tracks from Piggy. What he recorded as a solo artist is really, really good. We want to share it with people; Snake and I really want to finish it one day. Piggy played both the guitar and the bass tracks, so it would be easy for Snake and I to finish it. It’s just a matter of putting some money aside to record it eventually.

What do the solo albums sound like?

"They sound a lot like Voivod but, while listening to them, I can really tell which guitar players Piggy admired. I can tell there’s some TOOL in it, some RUSH, ROBERT FRIPP and DAVID GILMOUR, at times. I can really feel his influences, there’s even some JIMMY PAGE in there. It easier for me to spot the influences because I was aware of his favourite guitar players, but it’s also very Voivod-ish."

Voivod have posted a third preview track, 'Death Proof', off of their forthcoming album Infini. 'Death Proof' can be heard online now via the band’s newly redesigned MySpace page, along with 'Earthache' and 'Global Warning'.

Infini will see its US release on June 23rd via Relapse Records, the same day in Canada through Sonic Unyon. Nuclear Blast Germany released Infini on June 12th.

The album features that last thirteen songs written by Piggy and again features bassist Jason ‘Jasonic’ Newsted (ex-METALLICA). Jason plays bass on all songs and also mixed the album. Infini will be released as a deluxe, digipack CD and will also be issued on vinyl as a double LP.

Tracklisting for the album is as follows: 'God Phones', 'From The Cave', 'Earthache', 'Global Warning', 'A Room With A V.U.', 'Destroy After Reading', 'Treasure Chest', 'Krap Radio', 'In Orbit', 'Deathproof', 'Pyramidome', 'Morpheus' and 'Volcano'.

Voivod’s newest record Infini may be their last as Voivod. This was a record built from the final songs created by the band with Denis D’Amour aka Piggy. All his original demo guitar tracks appear as they were recorded, no re-amping, no overdubs, just Piggy as he played the tracks he envisioned in his small bachelor apartment, the amp in the bathroom, capturing his performance with the laptop given to him by Jason.

There were many discussions and ideas as to how to complete these recordings of songs that had never been actually performed with the whole band in one room. Drummer Michel ‘Away’ Langevin went into a studio in Montreal with engineer Glen Robinson and tracked his drum parts, and Jason waited anxiously to get the tracks and add his bass which he recorded with Enrique Gonzalez Müller at Fantasy Studios in San Francisco, then Denis ‘Snake’ Belanger tracked his vocals with Glen in Montreal afterwards. Jason and Enrique mixed the record in San Francisco over the holidays and Infini was born.

Truly a collaborative effort, Infini is an album that came together from a respect and belief that these final Voivod songs deserved to be heard. In light of this sentiment, the band agreed to play some summer festivals in 2008 with original bass player Jean-Yves ‘Blacky’ Theriault and fellow Montrealer Dan Mongrain of the band MARTYR on guitar, playing all classic era Voivod material. Dan is a technical wizard on guitar; his own band Martyr is a well respected extreme prog metal band from Montreal. It was a risky move but the fans and the band were happy with the outcome so much so that this lineup will play more live shows this summer. (Please visit here for all dates.)

Snake summed it up this way, “If we don’t play live again then the songs die with Piggy and he wouldn’t want that, his genius deserves to be heard by new and life long fans.”

Voivod have confirmed a number of European festival appearances in support of Infini including a performance at Download Festival tonight in the UK. Other festival performances include Hellfest in France, Gods Of Metal in Italy, Summer Breeze in Germany, Hole In The Sky in Norway and more. Voivod’s touring lineup includes Denis “Snake” Bélanger (vocals), Michel “Away” Langevin (drums), Jean-Yves “Blacky” Thériault (bass) and MARTYR’s Dan Mongrain (guitars). A listing of confirmed Voivod appearances can be found below with more details to be announced soon.

June

12 - Donington, UK - Download Festival
13 - Walden, Netherlands - Waldrock
19 - Clisson, France - Hellfest
23 - Budapest, Hungary - Petofi Csarnok (with DOWN)
26 - Balingen, Germany - Bang Your Head Festival
27 - Bologna, Italy - Gods Of Metal Festival
29 - Athens, Greece - Rockwave Festival

July

3 - Quebec City, QC - Woodstock en Beauce
4 - Jonquiere, QC - Place Nikitoutagen
11 - Krakow, Poland - Knock Out Festival
12 - Vizovice, Czech Rep. - Masters Of Rock Festival
25 - Lorca, Spain - Lorca Rock
26 - Barcelona, Spain - Apollo (with SEPULTURA)

August

14 - Oulu, Finland - Jalometalli Metal Music Festival
15 - Dinkelsbuhl, Germany - Summer Breeze Festival
28 - Bergen, Norway - Hole In The Sky
29 - Oslo, Norway - John Dee

September

12 - Monterrey, Mexico - Arena Santa Lucia
13 - Mexico City, Mexico - Salon Jose Cuervo


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