A bittersweet note comes from Sonic Unyon as it announces that June 23 is the confirmed release date for the next Voivod album. The sweet: it's new Voivod. The bitter: it might very well be their last album of new material ever.
It was only a matter of time before the inevitably shallow vault of recorded music emptied after the death of founding member/guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005. While that store offered us 2006's Katorz and has elicited enough guitar riffs for vocalist Denis "Snake" Bélanger, bassist Jason Newstead (Yes, Newstead. We'll sort that out in a moment.) and drummer Michel "Away" Langevin to create Infini's 13 tracks, it appears that this is the last hurrah unless the band decide to forge ahead with current live guitarist Dan Mongrain as D'Amour's creative replacement. Such will probably be the case, as the Voivod of today seems to be rather loose on who is or isn't in the band. Former Metallica bassist Jason Newstead is still considered to be a member of Voivod, playing and mixing Infini, while the live version of the band features founding member Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault. We told you we'd straighten it out.
For the album's release, Sonic Unyon (and Relapse in the U.S.) states the CD version will be packaged in a deluxe digi-pack with Langevin's enigmatic artwork and a double-LP will be pressed later.
And how did Voivod create a posthumous album? As with Katorz, the band took D'Amour's demo guitar tracks from his laptop unaltered and wrote/recorded around them utilizing the likes of engineer Glen Robinson and Enrique Gonzalez Müller.
While Infini will be released though, don't expect the band to perform songs live. That is saved solely for their catalogue material. Bélanger sums 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."
It was only a matter of time before the inevitably shallow vault of recorded music emptied after the death of founding member/guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005. While that store offered us 2006's Katorz and has elicited enough guitar riffs for vocalist Denis "Snake" Bélanger, bassist Jason Newstead (Yes, Newstead. We'll sort that out in a moment.) and drummer Michel "Away" Langevin to create Infini's 13 tracks, it appears that this is the last hurrah unless the band decide to forge ahead with current live guitarist Dan Mongrain as D'Amour's creative replacement. Such will probably be the case, as the Voivod of today seems to be rather loose on who is or isn't in the band. Former Metallica bassist Jason Newstead is still considered to be a member of Voivod, playing and mixing Infini, while the live version of the band features founding member Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault. We told you we'd straighten it out.
For the album's release, Sonic Unyon (and Relapse in the U.S.) states the CD version will be packaged in a deluxe digi-pack with Langevin's enigmatic artwork and a double-LP will be pressed later.
And how did Voivod create a posthumous album? As with Katorz, the band took D'Amour's demo guitar tracks from his laptop unaltered and wrote/recorded around them utilizing the likes of engineer Glen Robinson and Enrique Gonzalez Müller.
While Infini will be released though, don't expect the band to perform songs live. That is saved solely for their catalogue material. Bélanger sums 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."
