From the gallows to the thresher and well beyond their transcendence into new robotic sentience, the last forty years of chaosmöngering is lot of action to celebrate and it is no wonder that Québecois progressive thrash metal band Voivod have more to give beyond a fifteenth full-length (‘Synchro Anarchy‘, 2022), an early days boxed set (‘Forgotten in Space‘, 2022) and a few archival releases from their late 80’s era as we hit upon the official accompaniment to the band’s 40th anniversary touring efforts with ‘Morgöth Tales‘, a set of re-recordings which pull both deeper cuts and crowd pleasers in retrospect of their 1983-2003 timeline. The atmosphere is one of celebration, of rekindling old synapses and likely gearing up many fans into a ride through the band’s full discography, unifying a remarkably restless evolution under one banner and perhaps pulling a few ‘old school’ fans kicking and screaming into the here-and-now where the still vital surrealism of the band continues to shine.

Voivod are a staple within a few different canonical headspaces starting with the speed metalpunk advent days through the complete evolution of thrash metal in the 1980’s and on towards their own brand of psyched-out alternative rock/metal before becoming considered one of the more important bands to influence both progressive metal and thrash metal. The ‘old school’ thrash metal fandom knows a different Voivod than the 90’s prog metal fandom but these worlds would eventually merge in various phases of maturation over the years. I’d originally discovered the band for their 80’s material, most interested in the tech-thrash relevant records (‘Dimension Hatröss‘ is an all-time great) but I’d eventually came to enjoy their third and fourth decade output for its well-resolved personae and consistency. On ‘Morgöth Tales‘ we are getting the brilliant hi-fi grittiness of the last decade’s worth from the band beyond ‘Target Earth‘ (2013) applied to new versions of old songs, not necessarily reworking them but rather keeping in tune with the old ways under unified sound design.

Naturally this is the biggest ask from vocalist Snake, who’d so drastically changed his tune from album to album in the past, though we find the whole band having to adapt most to their most raw early material and easing through the rest. Voivod‘ve basically transcended era-specific songcraft beyond their first debut LP (‘War and Pain‘, 1984) and the first song the band ever recorded “Condemned to the Gallows” (which originally appeared on Metal Blade Records‘ ‘Metal Massacre V‘ (1984) compilation) features the temporal exception presented by that first LP which’d been set closest to their UK82 and NWOBHM influences. Since I am a fan of anything that crossed over between those two not-so distant worlds that earliest era of the band still speaks directly to the foundations of all of the heavy and extreme metal I enjoy most. If you are familiar with the original song, sure, they’ve kicked its ass up to speed and made it all more tight n’ tuneful on this re-recording but this ends up sounding a bit more like the song they’d written in their heads rather than the grimy, skulking original.

As we push on to songs from ‘Rrröööaaarrr‘ (1986) and ‘Killing Technology‘ (1987) with “Thrashing Rage” and “Killing Technology” respectively this is the crucial point of communicating Voivod‘s most classic era for the underground metal fandom and they’ve picked two songs which have a similarly narrative style. I’ve always described this as the drone of a nauseated tank, barreling speed metal songs which speak to the increasingly technical-yet-weirding touch of the guitarists at the time. They’ve cut the extended intro to “Killing Technology” and lost some of the bass guitar textures found on the original “Thrashing Rage” and this’d been where I’d found the band made the most concessions for easing the listener through the full listen, slapping away some of the excess and grime of their early work; ‘Dimension Hatröss‘ is the one Voivod record I’ve committed to memory and I guess I was surprised they’d done such a fine job of recreating “Macrosolutions of Megaproblems” despite the less distantly set, bassier production values herein. If nothing else ‘Morgöth Tales‘ already had me going back and listening to the band’s 80’s material in full at this point. Right, I love this band and the reminder was more than welcome.

No doubt these song selections were intended as milestones, pieces which were important tech upgrades per Voivod‘s songwriting efforts, songs which spread the band’s menace more than ever, and the closest reasonable thing we could expect in terms of a “greatest hits” collection. As we move towards the 90’s with songs from ‘Nothingface‘ (1989) and the divisive ‘Angel Rat‘ (1991) the current changes and the tuneful value of their work quadruples. I’ve appreciated this transitional era of the band in retrospect, it is clearly where the voice of the band feasibly matured and in keeping with the holistic gathering of their past which keeps the thrashing tension of these re-recordings alive there were other choices beyond “Nuage Fractal“, perhaps giving “Clouds in my House” a kick in the pants, but I’d appreciated their highlight of this deeper cut which comes near the end of the record. Not to skip past ‘Nothingface‘ and “Pre-Ignition” but yeah, you should know that record inside and out already for the classic that it is and we find no deficiencies in this rendition. In fact beyond this point I can’t offer a ton of insight into or pecking-at for 90’s Voivod beyond appreciating ‘Phobos‘ (1997) a lot more in hindsight (“Rise” is notably recreated here with vocalist Eric Forrest making a guest appearance) though I understand why they’ve not taken any tracks from the mediocre ‘Negatron‘ (1995).

We breach the celebrated post-millennium “return” of Voivod with ‘Voivod‘ (2003) by way of a new version of “Rebel Robot”, though I’m not sure it needed a new rendition this is a much cleaner recording which naturally includes Jason Newsted on bass. I particularly like Snake‘s vocals on this one, lending more croon to the chorus and bite to the verses. If you’re not familiar with the releases from the band in the mid-to-late 2000’s which were built from founding member Piggy‘s collected guitar works (as he’d intended, R.I.P.) after he’d passed you’re missing out on an important part of the bands history and how they’d soldiered on past their early 2000’s comeback. We’re lucky they kept going, eh. Of course this record could’ve easily included a second half which plucked a handful of choices from the last twenty years but the tunnel from the early 80’s to the early 2000’s is well represented with their choices herein; The cap on the record is “Morgöth Tales” a piece which takes a bit of a leap, ten years worth of action in hand with a song that seems to be from the sessions for ‘Synchro Anarchy‘, the lot of these re-recordings were otherwise recorded in the same studio and setup it seems. Snake’s vocals feature more layers and of course Chewy’s (Martyr) guitar work is percussive, technical in a different way which lines the ear up with their ‘Target Earth‘ and beyond work. I guess the final suggestion to the long-time fan is that hey, getting on board for the new stuff might actually blow your mind since this song goes places…

Again, this is an album which celebrates the past rather than recontextualizes it and does a fine job of presenting a unique set of choices when picking from so many past lives. It won’t replace the need for their classic albums in your collection but it might push you toward enjoying their more recent discography once you’ve soaked in their greater progression over the years under one roof. As a longtime Voivod fan it only just reinforces that fandom for a band that’d always made the argument that music should naturally be personalized, unique to the best abilities of the artist and not outsourced for the sake of a pandering product.

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