VOIVOD - Infini
June 29, 2009, 15 years ago
(Relapse/Sonic Unyon)
Amazing that Michel, Snake and Jason have been able to make yet a second album from the deceased Denis D’Amour’s demo guitar tracks, and even more so that there’s even a Piggy solo album in the works. In any event, Infini finds the band tearing it up in their new and renewed heavy metal punk direction. Snake’s halting lyrics and Pistols sneer is a big part of that, but so is the production and Piggy’s end-of-life predilection for more melody, groove and simplicity. ‘Earthache’ stands out as a favourite, with Jason getting Lemmy-like on the choppy verse and then into a chorus that experiments irresistibly with loose meter. ‘Deathproof’ is also instantly catchy, but brought high-minded by Piggy’s dissonant chording and Snake’s hardcore street smarts. ‘Global Warming’ wraps the band up in a dark Killing Joke realm, while ‘Destroy After Reading’ sounds like heavy Joy Division or Magazine. Fans are polarizing on this one, and it’s no wonder – Infini is nastier and well, more grimly fiendish than its two predecessors. Hoary, ragged, crackling with distorted life, Infini is nonetheless a cohesive, almost conceptual piece to be digested and deeply pondered in one spacewalk – enjoy it, ‘cos Away sez this is the second and last to be built from this unique time-travelling situation.
