NEGATRON

Second's Out. I never would have thought that the departure of vocalist 'Snake' would have had such an impact on Voivod's sound. The style change after 'Blacky's earlier departure on Outer Limits was a lot smaller actually. But maybe the personal changes weren't a decisive factor at all, maybe Negatron was the trajectory that guitar mastermind 'Piggy' wanted to steer Voivod into anyway. It's a direction that would take Voivod back to their thrash beginnings, entirely forsaking melody and their grown progressive standing.

There's absolutely nothing here that reminds us of the stellar, multidimensional music that Voivod had written before. Negatron is a mechanical sounding death metal-inspired thrash album that has a lot of power but that is completely devoid of interesting riffs and melodies. The vocals are gruff and tuneless throughout and will surely be repelling to everybody that is not into some or other form of extreme metal.

But it's not the change of style as such that disappoints me; it's the uninspired song writing and the low quality execution. This is generic metal fluff with a faint Voivod after-taste, a hint of what this band used to be capable of that is frustrating rather then appealing. In fact, to me this sounds like Pantera on a bad hair day. A Voivod release that is better avoided.