THE OUTER LIMITS

The trouble with following the work of a band like Voivod, who've always made a virtue of regularly re-examining, rebuilding and refreshing their sound, is that sooner or later they're probably going to come up with an experiment which loses you. The more regularly they change up their sound, the more likely it is that they'll hit on something which just doesn't suit your tastes or otherwise clashes aesthetically with what you're looking for. That's not your fault or the fault of the act in question, it's just part for the course.

For me, Voivod hits this point with The Outer Limits, where they seem to be trying to do this balancing act between catchy, melodic numbers (like opener Fix My Heart) and pieces that'll appeal to their prog fanbase (such as the epic Jack Luminous), and it's this confused approach which robs the album of the cohesion that releases like Nothingface enjoyed. (Plus, they picked one of the least interesting Pink Floyd songs to cover this time around.) Fun, still, but not peak Voivod.