By Jim Rowland
This year sees Canada’s Voivod celebrate 40 years since first forming. Through that time, their style has changed a few times, but one thing is for sure – Voivod have remained pretty unique. 2018’s ‘The Wake’ gained the band a Juno award for best metal album of the year. Four years on, they face the challenge of following it up with new album ‘Synchro Anarchy’, but for a band like Voivod, it’s a challenge to be relished.
Along with Sacrifice, Razor and Annihilator, Voivod are considered one of the ‘big four’ Canadian thrash bands, and indeed at the time of their brutal debut album ‘War and Pain’ in 1984, they were certainly lumped in with the thrash metal explosion that was taking place. Even then, there was something very different about Voivod compared to the other thrash bands of the time, and over the years the band has developed into a completely unique creature, drawing their influences from a much wider pool, becoming a truly ‘progressive’ band within the metal genre and boldly going where not many bands have gone before.
Voivod have been in a rich vein of form over the past decade, with ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘The Wake’ being exceptionally strong albums, and here ‘Synchro Anarchy’ shows that that vein of form continues. As with many albums recorded over the Covid period, Voivod had to adjust the way this one was recorded, with the band working separately from each other and unable to grow the songs from extensive jams as they usually do. However, you couldn’t really tell that from the finished product.
‘Synchro Anarchy’ pretty much picks up from where ‘The Wake’ left off, with all the Voivod trademarks firmly in place, from the distinctive guitar work of Daniel Mongrain and the sci-fi themes and social commentary of the lyrics to the bold and adventurous approach to the writing. Opener ‘Paranormalium’ is classic, chaotic Voivod full of complex twists and turns, multiple tempo changes and heavy and twisted guitars. This one reminds me of a metal Cardiacs in many ways, a band Voivod are known to admire and who also displayed strong progressive tendencies outside of the norm. ‘Planet Eaters’ and ‘Memory Failure’ display a similar approach, whilst ‘Mind Clock’ and ‘Holographic Thinking’ offer a darker, more atmospheric approach, with odd bursts of thrash and a progressive nature. Whilst you could never accuse anything Voivod do as “commercial”, the likes of ‘Synchro Anarchy’, ‘Sleeves Off’ and ‘The World Today’ veer in a more straightforward, simpler and at times very catchy direction in contrast to ‘Quest For Nothing’s relentlessly heavy approach.
Whilst ‘Synchro Anarchy’ doesn’t out-do either ‘Planet Earth’ or ‘The Wake’, it stands up very well indeed in comparison to those two belters and is another bold, complex, challenging and ultimately satisfying addition to the Voivod catalogue.
- ‘Synchro Anarchy’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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