Piggy’s Dead But Voi Vod Lives On!
This one goes to all my absent friends from the joyous Section 17, PJ and the Brickfields days of sharing a pack of 50 sen nasi lemak with three friends and tap water as dessert:
Voi Vod is alive and well! And wait for it!! With original bassist Blacky back in the fold too!
But hang on? Isn’t Piggy dead?
Well, the clip above is an amateur shot taken from Voi Vod’s well-received set at the Montreal’s Heavy MTL Festival on June 22nd this year. Away is still on drums, Snake on vocals, Blacky’s back on bass (after 17 years!!!) and Dan Mongrain from Quebec band Martyr, “a good friend of the band”, on guitar.
It’s been 5 years since the band played a show, and hardcore fans like me has been thinking Voi Vod is no more, especially when the hugely important part of the band, guitarist Piggy dead from colon cancer in 2005.
Judging from the clip tho’, the new guitarist is fitting Piggy’s shoes pretty well (apart from his kinda silly hair-twirling antics that is). That job’s not gonna be easy as Piggy was one of those weird, one-of-a-kind experimenter of string-wrangling. But Mongrain’s doing alright, even the guitar sound is the same old Die Kruezen-esque!
Voi Vod is playing with Testament & Forbidden (both veteran thrashers) in Japan soon. The dates, 20th & 21st September 2008; the venue here. Hopefully by that date, Mongrain would unlearn enough to throw away that bog-standard metal licks and go for the skronk like Piggy always did.
more videos & interviews at the fest: here
BTW, this time the band is revisiting songs from the first four albums (their best era) and here’s their version of Pink Floyd’s Astonomy Domine from the same show:
Hell yeah VoiVoD are good as hell-they got progressively better up to ‘Nothingface’-they, along with Motorhead, NunSlaughter (and more recently to an extent) Cattle Decapitation are one of those few special metal bands that everyone could get into regardless of their identification. I mean…their first 2 records were so raw and chaotic, it sounded like they were just ready to spiral out of control at any moment-so welcome back VoiVoD!!!
Back in the day, while I was managing Punisher for a short period, the ones who were really mad about Voivod were few and rare.
Away, Blacky, Piggy & Snake were too weird, too post-punk-influenced and too prog for the normal thrasher/death metal kids but Blacky’s signature one-side-shaved-one-side-kept-long-and-straight hairstyle was the rage. Arwah Boy (Punisher’s guitarist) had that hairdo and I remember Mama Juwie coming to see me after a gig at the Metallica Lounge and asked for a permission to shoot Boy’s hairstyle for URTV!
Anyway, Punisher’s drummer Bullet and bassist Karim wrote about 5 original songs which were influenced by Voivod. We were all so excited BUT singer Rosdan and the other members of the band shot them down, as I think they want to sound more Bay Area thrash than “weird”.
Punisher never really recorded anything. They split up without leaving a single original song recorded as legacy. Damn, they were a very, very good band.
So kids, there’s a lesson to learn there…
i got extra 1 copy of voivod 2006 release titled “katorz” on vinyl LP, original release on CD only by Nuclear Blast, later one italian label called night of the vinyl dead records release it on limited 500 copies vinyl LP (hand numbered)
recently a limited color vinyl + gatefold LP out as well.
During the recording, Piggy died before this album out, it features tracks recorded by him
and i think i also got extra copy of old voivod album on vinyl LP as well
either “killing technology” or “dimension hatross
there got 180 grams re issue LP as well for old voivod album.
soon i’ll put at the shop what i got extra .. if anyone interested to buy it ..
Katorz is okay, not great. That one has Jason Newsted on bass.
Killing Technology & Dimension Hatross are both MUST HAVES just like RRROOOAAARR, Nothingface & War and Pain.
Metal Blade released a 3xCD pack of their first album “War & Pain” in 2004. I don’t mind getting hold of that Shammir!
BTW; can I see the LPs?
Hell yeah there’s a lesson: originality over hero-worship. I think Another were influenced by VoivoD too, if I’m not mistaken-prog is good but I have a certain threshold for it…
if i’m not mistaken its a second album with jason on bass .. i don’t like first time i listen to it, but after few times spin it, with a rocking guitar part. its not bad album after all ..
sure, i’ll bring the LPs to the shop for sale .. from time to time.
i have all the voivod album mention above on vinyl LP expect Nothingface (or i just forget what i’ve and what i don’t)
first voivod album that i listen is RRROOOAAARR on tape dubbing from vinyl and the best voivod album for me ..
just a quick search in my collection, i got extra 2 copies of killing technology LP, can’t remember when i’ve brought it ..
both are original pressing and second hand, but i don’t remember playing it.. the condition is good .. the cover still in a good condition .
soon, i’ll bring it over to the shop, if anyone are interested want to buy it