KILLING TECHNOLOGY

Killing Technology marked the beginning of Voivod's classic era, which ended with Angel Rat, though the group has had other successes. This album, along with Dimension Hatross and the band's magnum opus Nothingface, is a concept piece about the sci-fi journeys of a creature called the Voivod. The concept is a little thin but individual song lyrics are quite strong.

Michel "Away" Langevin's drumming is powerful and subtley complex, though not dizzingly so. He also designed the album artwork like he would for later releases.

Denis "Snake" Belanger's vocals are much improved over the first two albums as he now mixes clean vocals with his mad barks.

Jean-Yves "Blacky"Theriault's bass is very reminiscient of Chris Squire's, and he provides a more than solid rythmn, and his countermelodies are, to me, the second most progressive contribution to the band.

And now the the most progressive contribution to the band. Denis "Piggy" D'Amour is an unsung hero in the world of rock. His fretwork is incredible, though he does not shred wildly. His chord progressions are beyond compare, because unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries in the thrash field, Piggy uses every string and every fret in his weaving lines.

The album opens with pod bay door beeps and a robot voice before the band enters. This sets the stage for the weirdest album in thrash up to that point (the weirdness would later be matched by future Voivod releases). The original album tracks are all great, though the two new additions, Too Scared to Scream and Cockroaches, fail to match the strength of the album though they're not bad. On tracks like Order of the Blackguards, Blacky's and Piggy's separate melodies come together briefly, only to break away as quickly.

Highlights are: Killing Technology, Tornado, Order of the Blackguards, yet every track is at least good. They're are enough falws to keep it from being a classic, but fans of thrash, prog metal, or even art rock would do well to give this a try