Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Metal Rules, Voivod drummer Michel “Away” Langevin offered an update on the band’s new concept album. According to him, the effort will likely arrive in late 2027.

Langevin said the following while discussing the group’s “Symphonique” live album:

“I think that the symphonic concerts really influenced us in the writing and recording of the future studio album. In between tours, we are doing — we write a new album, and we are recording the album three songs at a time. And I think it’s gonna sound a bit like a movie soundtrack. It’s a concept album with the Korgull coming back and everything. So, it’s kind of interesting what’s going on right now.”

He continued:

“We’re trying to be more and more experimental. And the last couple of albums were pretty intricate, and we won awards for them, so it’s giving us confidence. And we do have a secret weapon — it’s Chewy [Daniel Mongrain], our guitar player. He teaches jazz at college, and he has a lot of notions. And he already charted music for ‘The Wake’. We had the string quartet for the Montreal Jazz Festival and ‘The End Of Dormancy’ EP, he charted parts for a brass quintet. And so we try to include newer sounds in our music that will make it even more like a journey for the listener. There are no limits for us, it seems like, so we’re gonna try to push it really.”

He also added the following about release plans:

“We have so many shows planned and so many projects in the works. I would say late next year [2027]. At least people will be able to enjoy the symphonic album. And also we have a video game coming out called ‘Nuclear Warrior’, and it’s based on end-of-’80s, early-’90s aesthetics. And again, we are all involved. I supplied a lot of low-res art Chewy’s working on turning the Voivod music into 8-bit style. [Frontman] Snake [Denis Bélanger] is doing the voice for the main character, and [bassist] Rocky [Dominic Laroche] is testing the game, so it’s pretty fun. And the documentary ‘We Are Connected’ is coming out soon as well. And we just released a book with Jeff Wagner, ‘Always Moving’ — it’s more than 500 pages long. So many things are in the works, and tons of reissues all the time.

I’ve dedicated my life to Voivod for 43 years now, and it’s pretty fun to be able to release all of these projects, because the people into Voivod are very loyal. So we try to supply them with as much stuff as possible.”

[via Blabbermouth]