2023 JUNO Award-winners, Voivod, are celebrating 40 eventful years of existence this year and will issue a special anniversary studio album, Morgöth Tales, on July 21 via Century Media Records. A message from Snake follows...

"The Morgöth Tales album starts where it all began. 'Condemned To The Gallows' was the first song ever recorded in a studio. I recall being shocked, hearing my voice for the first time, and I was a bit intimidated. I had joined the band only a few months prior to that and I didn’t know how to sing or even if was capable of doing the job. So I jumped in, and this 40 year adventure was about to begin. Revisiting this song was a real trip. Going back in time when we were young and wild, recapturing that same fury Inside that led us up to now made me realize that the spirit never gets old. Thanks to Mom, who kept well preserved, the only lyrics sheet existing on the surface of this planet, with my smudged left handed writing. Otherwise we would have been screwed.”

Listen to "Condemned To The Gallows" (2023 Version) on Spotify, and below:

Once again recorded and mixed by Francis Perron at RadicArt Studio, mastered by Maor Appelbaum and produced by Voivod, Morgöth Tales includes fresh studio (re-)recordings by the band’s current lineup of nine especially selected, not-so-obvious picks from the band’s hyper-classy and extremely diverse back catalogue (between 1984 and 2003) as well as a brand-new song in the album’s title-track, “Morgöth Tales”.

Voivod drummer Michel “Away” Langevin commented about Morgöth Tales as follows: “Morgöth Tales covers 40 years of space exploration. It was really exciting for us to revisit a more obscure part of the Voïvod catalogue, from thrash-punk to prog-metal to…? The title track is a new song, which we started writing in the tour bus and hotels during the Opeth European tour in November/December 2022. It has the vibe of the experimental music we are doing nowadays, with a new twist I think. We also had the great thrill of getting E-Force (Eric Forrest) and Jasonic (Jason Newsted) involved on this album. I hope you’ll dig it, Chewy, Rocky, Snake and I certainly had a blast recording it. All aboard and ready for take off!“

Tracklisting:

"Condemned To The Gallows"
"Thrashing Rage "
"Killing Technology"
"Macrosolutions To Megaproblems"
"Pre-Ignition"
"Nuage Fractal"
"Fix My Heart"
"Rise" (feat. Eric Forrest)
"Rebel Robot" (feat. Jason Newsted)
"Morgöth Tales"

"Nuage Fractal" video:

(Photo - Catherine Deslauriers)