TARGET EARTH

Ah, hear we go! After nearly two decades, Voivod returns to making truly unique technical metal. I suppose they finally decided they had extended Piggy the proper grieving period and hired the new guitarist Chewy to succeed him. Chewy had some big shoes to fill, and while his soloing isn't quite as fun or unpredictable as Piggy's could be in that magical Nothingface/Hatross era, he does an excellent job carrying the overall sound of Voivod forward. What we have here is an album that sounds like a spacier, yet gruffer version of "Dimension Hatross". Away seems to have really put a big effort forward, as the drums sound miles beyond what he was doing on "Infini", the previous release. Additionally, the production is greatly improved and they seem to have gotten much, if not all of their youthful energy back. The song writing may not be quite as good as their classic albums from the late 80s and early 90s, but they still did a great job, as there's not a single clunker on here. "Target Earth" and "Mechanical Mind" in particular nothing short of amazeballs. I'm still processing this album, so I may come back and add a track by track breakdown later, but I'm thinking we have a solid 4 star on our hands here!