DIMENSION HATROSS

An interesting thrash metal album with visible progressive tendencies - not really prog, as Voivod tends to stick to formulaic songwriting a lot. The band is still somewhat unique, as I can't find an appropriate group to compare it too - though generally, it can be related to underground bands like Cynic, Spiral Architect, etc: on the down side, "Dimension Hatross" sounds looser and less technically precise than stuff by the aforementioned bands; on the other hand, it's less pretentious. The album also appears to have been influenced considerably by King Crimson's "Red". I may be wrong, of course, but I'm frequently reminded of tracks like "Red" or the noisier moments of "Starless" throughout the record. Robert Fripp's influence can also be heard in the most distinctive feature of the band's music , which is the guitar work of Dennis D'Amour aka Piggy (RIP), who alternates typical power chord chugging with more elaborate (and usually dissonant) chord shapes; as expected, this chords are usually out of place harmonically, but most of the time that doesn't matter. There's a healthy dose of the obligatory odd meters as well; I'm not a big fan of their use in metal as it usually compromises the headbanging aspect of the music, but then this isn't much of a headbanger album, although there's plenty of fast catchy thrash nonetheless. Another thing I don't quite like are Dennis Belanger's vocals, which are clean, but rarely melodic, instead settling for a flat croaky voice.

Among the highlights is "Technocratic Manipulations", a pretty straightforward , fast-paced and melodic rocker. The opening riff to "Cosmic Drama" (after the quiet guitar intro) is also quite cool. The best track, however, would be "Psychic Vacuum": the dissonant diminished chording works really well in the frantic environment, and the riff heard at 3:17 is excellent. There are other fine moments, although they're kinda drowned by unnecessary filler.

Anyway, if you like your metal interesting, you should check this out. Between the two Voivod albums I've heard (the other being "Nothingface"), I prefer "Dimension Hatross" by a considerable margin. It gets monotone fairly often, but is enjoyable nonetheless. If you like your metal interesting, you should check it out.