Voivod enter their 40th year with the thrashy and dissonant Synchro Anarchy.
Voivod exist in a space of their own. After initially breaking out as a crossover thrash outfit, they increased the technicality on the 1987 breakout Killing Technology. With a trio of albums in the same vein, they switched gears completely in 1991 on Angel Rat. Now injecting greater alternative and psychedelic sounds, this culminated in arguably their best album in The Outer Limits. After a pair of albums with E-Force replacing both Snake on vocals and Blacky on bass (including the excellent Phobos in 1998), Snake returned in time for their self-titled album, released in 2003. This album would unfortunately be the last in guitarist Piggy‘s life, who died of colon cancer in 2005. With two albums’ worth of guitar work already recorded, the band built around these stems on their next two releases. These were originally intended to be the final Voivod albums.
The addition of guitarist Chewy in 2008 helped to breathe new life into the band. A longtime fan of Voivod, he took significant influence from Piggy‘s prog-infused riffing that helped establish their sound. Finally, in 2013, Target Earth came out to largely positive reviews, despite a somewhat awkward transition back to their technical thrash metal work. However, 2018’s The Wake helped to justify the change. Unquestionably their best album in twenty years, it helped to reframe the conversation from emulating their old sound into pushing it forward, with greater integration of the lessons taken from those early 90s highlights.
All this history provides context for Synchro Anarchy, which has the very difficult task of following up The Wake. However, at this point, it’s hard to bet against Voivod.
All sequences out of sync,
Onе wave strangely cuts the phrase.
The time that I need to think,
All my words getting out of phase.
The French-Canadians open up with a warning shot in “Paranormalium”. Dystopian themes immediately come to life as they often do with Voivod, and the confusion and anger that comes with them. Certainly, they don’t lack for urgency, harbingers of doom and destruction for as long as they’ve existed. Once again, the enemies are technology, human indifference, and fatalism. Chewy could very well be Piggy on this one, slinging twisted and off-kilter riffs. As technical as it is thrashy, this track progresses through distinct passages like a labyrinth.
So now you end up a random survivor,
The course of death stopped in sudden behavior,
Who knew what you were just about to get?
Nobody could tell nothing happened yet.
If “Paranormalium” represents a callback to their thrash era, the title track sits more towards the alternative years. That’s not to say there isn’t a mathy breakdown at its midpoint, because of course there is. However, the album’s spaciest guitar lead immediately follows, churning and grinding. Similarly to the previous song, this one can’t remain satisfied staying in the same place. The band shows their age in the play-along video, but the direction is a fresh take, with some of Snake‘s best vocals in years. The rather light tones juxtaposes well with the horror of the subject matter, with a generous dash of humor to provide levity in typical fashion. The very next track on the album continues in this vein:
Save for your next trip to Mars
Win the chance to reach the stars
Click the link, fill your name
Check the box down below
“Planet Eaters” also blends some classic Voivod sounds. In this situation, one could even say it hearkens back to Negatron or Phobos at times, an underrated and underrepresented era in their history. However, this track is more crisp, with some excellent guitar tones throughout bouncing around the foreground. While I may question the wisdom of releasing the first three tracks in the album as the singles, they do provide a nice display of the variety that Synchro Anarchy brings to the table.
Of course, tracks like “Sleeves Off” and “Holographic” could also serve the same function. On the latter, Snake arguably turns in his best performance in years, yet still is matched by the rhythm section of Away and Rocky with what sounds like effortless ease. The synchronicity shown from each of them together, even as they take turns blasting off in different directions, remains one of the biggest triumphs of this particular iteration of the band.
Again, it’s hard to bet against Voivod now that they’ve been back for nearly a decade, and they’ve clearly struck oil with Synchro Anarchy. It may not match the level of cohesion in The Wake, but they clearly weren’t looking to make that album again. Instead, we’re treated to a band that has a bag of tricks a mile deep, and they keep reaching back and finding something new. 2018-2022 must be the third peak in their career, after 1987-1989 and 1993-1998 – a remarkable achievement for a band with such a tumultuous history.
8.5/10
Voivod – Synchro Anarchy comes out this Friday, February 11 on Century Media Records. You can pre-order it here.