Voivod have shared a new video for a live version of “Overreaction.” This track is from the band’s new live album “Lost Machine – Live,“ which was released today (November 27). That effort was recorded during the band’s July 13, 2019 show in Quebec City, QC. Michel “Away” Langevin commented:
“And last but not least, ‘Overreaction’, the new single/video from our brand new release Lost Machine – Live. This old classic from Killing Technology has been on the setlist since 1987. It really gets the crowd going, and us too! Once again, splendid video direction by Felipe Belalcazar and thanks to Jaan Silmberg for animating my artwork. Enjoy our new live album!!“
Voivod have shared a new video for a live version of “Iconspiracy.” This track is from the band’s new live album “Lost Machine – Live,“ which will be released on November 27. That effort was recorded during the band’s July 13, 2019 show in Quebec City, QC. Drummer Michel “Away” Langevin commented:
“And now, ‘Iconspiracy‘, the second single/video from our upcoming release ‘Lost Machine – Live‘. Like the video for the first single ‘The Lost Machine‘, the footage comes from the Montréal Jazz Fest 2019 and the audio is from the Québec City Summer Fest 2019, where the entire live album was recorded. ‘Iconspiracy‘ has become one of our favorite songs to perform on tour since the album ‘The Wake‘ came out in 2018. The video direction is by Felipe Belalcazar and my art was animated by Jaan Silmberg. There are a lot more projects in the works. Meanwhile, have fun with this one.”
Voivod will be releasing a new live album titled “Lost Machine – Live“ on November 27. The effort was recorded during the band’s July 13, 2019 show in Quebec City, QC and a video for the first single, a live version of “The Lost Machine,” can be found below:
Drummer Michel “Away” Langevin commented:
“Here it is at last, the first single and video from our upcoming release ‘Lost Machine – Live‘. The footage used in this clip comes from a hometown show in Montreal in the summer of 2019, and the audio is from a show in Québec City 2 weeks later, where we recorded the entire live album.
We were obviously excited to play in our province of Québec, in front of families and friends, as documented in this rendition of the song ‘The Lost Machine‘. The video is directed by Felipe Belalcazar, who is also working on a VOIVOD documentary. I did the art on the road across the globe last year, and it was animated by Jaan Silmberg. More to come soon, enjoy.”
“Lost Machine – Live” Track Listing:
01. “Post Society”
02. “Psychic Vacuum”
03. “Obsolete Beings”
04. “The Prow”
05. “Iconspiracy”
06. “Into My Hypercube”
07. “The End Of Dormancy”
08. “Overreaction”
09. “Always Moving”
10. “Fall”
11. “The Lost Machine”
12. “Astronomy Domine”
13. “Voivod”
It looks like Vio-lence, Voivod, Exciter, and Artillery will be hitting the road on the 2021 “MTV Headbanger’s Ball” tour in Europe. So far, a November 26, 2021 date at the Masters Of Rock Café in Zlín, Czech Republic has been confirmed.
Voivod have announced that they will be playing a virtual concert on August 9. The performance will stream live from the RadicArt Recording Studio in Trois-Rivieres, QUE and tickets for it can be found HERE.
Voivod have offered an update on their upcoming plans. In addition to finishing up their new live album and writing for their next studio album, the band are also planning a virtual concert for August 9. Michel “Away” Langevin commented:
“It’s always a great day for us when something we worked on gets to be released. These are strange times but we can still move forward! We are presently putting the final touch on an upcoming live LP, along with writing new material for a studio album. We are also planning an online performance at RadicArt Studio on August 9th, 2020, for Snake’s birthday. We toured so much for ‘The Wake’, there is a lot of catching up to be done on various Voivod projects, including a book and a movie. In the meantime, enjoy our new ‘The End Of Dormancy‘ EP!”
Voivod will be releasing a new 12-inch vinyl and digital EP titled “The End Of Dormancy” on July 10. The effort comes with a special “Metal Section” version of “The End Of Dormancy” featuring added trumpets, saxophone and trombones, as well as live versions of “The End Of Dormancy” and “The Unknown Knows” from the 2019 Montreal Jazz Fest. A video for “The End Of Dormancy (Metal Section)” can be found below:
Guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain said the following about the song:
“I initially wrote the opening riff of the song on tour, outside, behind a club in Germany on a sunny day and recorded right away. It had that quartal harmony over a pedal point that to me evoke soundtracks of classic roman movies when you hear the brass (lituus, cornu and other instruments). It has a military and solemn vibe to it.
When in 2019 we had the honor to be invited to play the Montreal International Jazz Festival, we all thought we could do something special in the context. I had the idea to do a brass arrangement and add in an extra open improvised sax solo section which doesn’t exist in the studio version. I started to write and was able to finish the arrangement in time for the rehearsal but it was sooo much work that I could only do one song. We hired top players of the Montreal scene. They were very excited to be part of it. It’s not every day that a brass section plays with a metal band, so it was as exciting for them as it was for us. We had one rehearsal and it worked perfectly. Then we played the show and the crowd went totally nuts. You can hear it on the live version: it was a great moment for everyone and we had a real blast. The live version is also on the EP, but will not be on the upcoming live album ‘Lost Machine’, since that was recorded during a different show…
When the video idea of that song came up, I thought we could record the brass over the studio version and make the video version unique, and share this version with the rest of the world, giving something special to the fans and immortalize the brass arrangement at the same time. So, I just cut out the improvised section that was in the live arrangement and we could time a studio session with all the same guys. Francis Perron (RadicArt Studio), who recorded and mixed ‘The Wake’, brought his gear and recorded it, then remixed the song.
It was an amazing experience, a great challenge for me to write each part and conduct it. I don’t do that often, so it was a lot of work and I’m very happy with the result. It adds that extra empire, military, roman paddle boat war feel like in the old ‘Ben Hur’ movie, with the acceleration of the music and intense and stressful emotions that fits the song lyrics perfectly.
I’m so proud and happy to play in Voivod, as we can try this kind of madness projects and everybody in the band gets excited and motivated to do new things. It’s so fulfilling. I hope this feeling transpires into the music and that the signal gets to the receiver’s frequency.”
Vocalist Denis “Snake” Belanger added the following about the video:
“I must say that we had some hesitations regarding the timing of release for this very special video clip. The shoot took place in November 2019 and the scenario is pure science-fiction, but we were concerned the imagery might be insensitive in these pandemic times. In the end, we decided to proceed as planned. Speaking of sci-fi, the documentary called ‘The Creeping Garden’ had a big influence on me and was a great source of inspirations for the concept. A must-watch. The slime moulds are amazing creatures and will use ingeniosity to survive. And so are humans… We’ll get through this.”
Century Media Records will be hosting a virtual “Isolation Festival” on May 14. The event will broadcast at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT and it will stay on YouTube for 24 hours. The following artists will be involved: Insomnium, Voivod, Borknagar, Omnium Gatherum, Lucifer, Angelus Apatrida, Dead Lord, Deserted Fear, Bonded, The Offering, Svart Crown, Baest, and Hideous Divinity.
During a recent interview with Agoraphobic News, Voivod drummer Michel “Away” Langevin revealed that the band have been writing new material. On top of that, he also revealed that the group are planning to release a new live album as well.
Langevin said the following about writing new material during the coronavirus pandemic:
“The problem we encountered was that Chewy [guitarist Daniel Mongrain] lives a few miles away from Montreal. And the roads are blocked these days and he can’t really travel to Montreal and we can’t really travel to where he lives and so on. So we are doing a demo, sharing files in a Dropbox folder. I just downloaded a drum machine app for Android, and I’m using it to demo the drums, because, obviously, I can’t play at home or record at all. But we are moving forward with writing new material, which is great.”
He continued after being asked how many new songs the band have:
“We have just chunks of songs, but many of them. And maybe some of them will be collected together eventually. Before everything started with this coronavirus, we already had made a bunch of recording sessions at our studio. So we have some material to pull from — improvisations, riffs that Chewy started and we all joined then. But there is also material written separately by everybody that we share, so we are slowly gonna build an album this year. among ourselves. We are slowly gonna build up an album this year. But before that, there will be a live album coming out.”
On another note, Langevin, who is also a graphic design artist, also discussed how the pandemic is affecting touring, which is usually the main source of income for artists:
“I’ve been scared of that for many, many years, but it’s still a surreal situation right now. Even though that we should have been prepared [for] it, it’s something that will change this whole planet, for sure… For me, it seems like life as usual, it will definitely crush the VOIVOD revenues in terms of touring. And also, eventually, it will have an impact on my art as well, in the sense that if the bands stop touring, [I’m not] gonna draw t-shirts anymore. Like [the] ‘voivod’ [character created by Away], I’m gonna have to adapt to the situation very quickly, make the best of it.”
He also added the following when asked if he is concerned about Voivod staying off the road for awhile:
“Yes, I’m very afraid of that. We had some great, great festivals lined up in Quebec this summer, and then we had a world tour starting in September for the live album. And everything is up in the air right now. So I’m gonna seize the opportunity to put together the books that I’m gonna release eventually.”
Langevin went on to offer more information on his upcoming books:
“There is one book that’s art on the road. And the other book is art that I do for other people, like commissioned artwork, over the years. And I have another book that is all art that I do at home for myself. So that’s three books together. And I also have some kind of a comic book in the works, and this will probably be the first one coming out… I’m aiming at publishing it this year for the first book, which is more comic book-oriented. It’s not that many pages — maybe 30. And then I’m gonna move to the book about all the art that I do on the road. But this one is longer to put together, because I have thousands of drawings, because I draw a lot on the road.”
GWAR and Voivod have announced a European/UK tour. Childrain will open on most dates and Downcast Collision will open on select dates.
Tour Dates:
11/22 Bochum, GER – Matrix (with Downcast Collision) (no Childrain)
11/23 Vaureal, FRA – Le Forum (with Downcast Collision) (no Childrain)
11/24 Mannheim, GER – MS Connexion (with Downcast Collision) (no Childrain)
11/26 Cologne, GER – Live Music Hall
11/27 Kortrijk, BEL – De Kruen
11/28 Tilburg, NET – 013 KZ
11/30 Manchester, UK – Club Academy
12/01 Glasgow, UK – The Garage
12/02 Wolverhampton, UK – Steel Mill
12/03 Newcastle, UK – Riverside
12/04 London, UK – Islington Academy
12/05 Antwerp, BEL – Zappa
12/06 Bremen, GER – Schlachthof
12/07 Copenhagen, DEN – Pumpehuset
12/08 Berlin, GER – Festsaal Kreuzberg
12/09 Prague, CZE – Meet Factory
12/10 Ziln, CZE – Masters of Rock Cafe
12/11 Graz, AUT – Explosvi
12/12 Ljubljana, SLO – Kino Siska
12/13 Pinarella di Cervia, ITA – Rock Planet
12/14 Zurich, SWI – Komplex
