VOIVOD
Voivod: still exploring fantastic new worlds
Synchro Anarchy
CENTURY MEDIA
Canada’s thrash-warping pioneers administer a new set of future shocks
SIMILAR TO SPACE’S limitless expanse, there appears to be no stopping the sci-fi-worshipping, Canadian eco-warriors of ice as they continue to venture deep into the post-Denis ‘Piggy’ D’Amour era. For this we can thank Daniel ‘Chewy’ Mongrain. He’s one of the few axe-slingers not only able to reproduce the late guitarist’s oblong-shaped, oddball prog thrash renderings, but to also comfortably exist as the creative thrust for new material, marrying their old-school, warheadtipped din with boomer-age proggy reminiscing while still pushing further and forward. For the third time since 2008, he’s again made possible what was once unimaginable.
Album number 15 is a quirky, loping and almost insidious paean to tribal rhythms, minor-key dissonance re-jigged into experimental punk rock with stream of consciousness poetry riding a jet-stream towards a black hole. Occasionally, though, the immediacy of the skittish, pockmarked thrash of the stellar Memory Failure is challenged by dense, counter-productive moments like Paranormalium, which gets lost in its own cleverness. On the whole, however, Synchro Anarchy is another essential listen in the long line of essential listens Voivod have delivered since 1983.