VOIVOD Drummer Says New Album Is 'Mind-Blowing'

March 13, 2006

Greg Prato of Billboard.com is reporting that VOIVOD are scheduled to release their new album, "Katorz", in June via The End Records. It will be the group's first CD since the passing of co-founding guitarist Denis D'Amour (a.k.a. Piggy),who died last August after a battle with colon cancer.

"It came about in unfortunate circumstances, but the result is mind-blowing," drummer Michel "Away" Langevin told Billboard.com. "Right before his departure, Denis explained to me that he had recorded all the tracks that we had been working on with [bassist] Jason [Newsted] and [vocalist] Snake [Belanger] for the past two years. He had recorded that on his laptop with ProTools, and even though he would have preferred to re-do the whole thing in a real studio, there was a chance that we could use the tracks. We built the album based on the guitar tracks, which was difficult, because normally, we go the other way around — we start with the drums, and then add stuff on top. But it sounds amazing."

"'Katorz' means 14 — it's the 14th effort of the band," Belanger added. "The first time Piggy put it together and gave us the demo was on CD, [and he had written] 'Katorz,' which is not the right way to write it. Of course [there is] an emotional side to it, so we took the demo, and the design of it will be his handwriting."

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