Jean-Yves ‘Blacky’ Thériault, ex-bassist and co-founder of metal band Voïvod, has posted the following press on his Cœur Atomique website:

Jean-Yves ‘Blacky’ Thériault, ex-bassist and co-founder of metal band Voïvod, was recently informed by England-based company BMG that a sum of $16,000 CA was intentionally hidden for many years by drummer Michel ‘Away’ Langevin and manager James Maclean from Talk’s Cheap Management, and AMG Toronto will retroactively be reimbursed to him. The news was received with a sense that justice has been done.

Thériault’s own investigation revealed that, following BMG's official announcement about a forthcoming re-release, a payment of several thousand dollars was missing. In 2007, Away and Maclean received 7,000 British pounds (approximately $14,000 CA) in advance for the re-release of three classical 1980’s Voïvod albums Thériault had composed with Denis ‘Piggy’ D’amour: Rrröööaaarrr, Killing Technology and Dimension Hätross. However, when the band reformed a year later, in 2008, Away and Maclean kept Blacky ignorant of the fact. His intuition that an advance might have been paid by BMG to the band in order to prepare the re-release turned out to be right. 

His scrutiny paying off, Blacky comments: “What they did is fraud, as simple as that!”

But this was not the end of his misfortunes with his former band. After a forced departure from Voïvod in 2014, he also discovered that 50% of his copyright on the acclaimed 2013 album, Target Earth, he had largely composed had been fraudulently diverted by Away and Maclean into a setup rights management company without any prior consent on his part, an act of misguidance, false representation, and fraud violating the Copyright Act according to Thériault.

Voïvod’s ex-bassist has tried to get his hands on other due royalties from both his former band and record companies involved. “These are my copyright! I will keep on battling until I get every penny they owe me.”

Away and Maclean had always refused to resolve the contentious situation until they were informed of possible legal actions against them. While still a member of the band, Thériault was kept out of the decision making process. He was also prevented from criticizing the outcome, a rather dubious position against a founding Voïvod member and major composer. Important disagreements over management and lack of transparency had obscured his last years with his former band, forcing him out in 2014 as a result.

Questioned about whether Denis ‘Snake’ Bélanger and Christine D’amour (the sister of late guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour) are aware of the repayment was granted with and which they should reclaim as well, Thériault says he unsuccessfully tried contacting them on the matter during the last months. Unfortunately, none of them replied.

Greater details of the affair will be related in Camera Obscura: lights on Voïvod a forthcoming book (2019) revisiting Blacky’s years with the band. The author, Monica Emond, collaborating with Thériault on the musical project Cœur Atomique, bases her critical bio-essay on at-length interviews and exclusive material.

Blacky teamed up with bassist Monica Emond and launched Cœur Atomique, a project formed in 2014. Their music, written for two basses and electronics, is accompanied with film projections during live performances. Art, they say, is meant to act and to resist!

“Watch out weird monkeys! Yes, it’s you we are talking to. You won’t get away so easily reshaping the whole wide world around.”

They released their first album called Landscape Of Emergency I on June 5th, 2017, both available on vinyl and in digital format through their website. This album is the first part of the Landscape of Emergency serie of releases which address the impacts of the silencing machine of ignorance and indifference.

The Landscape Of Emergency I tracklist is as follows:

"Fail Safe"
"Calutron"
"Castle Bravo"
"The Waste"
"Berghof"
"Green Run"