Initial Impressions: Voivod: War and Pain

It's Voivod week here at the Metallattorney Law Office. I recently picked up four Voivod albums and plan to take an initial look at each one this week.

To begin with, I have the debut album from the Canadian sci-fi prog-thrashers. At this point, the band was quite a ways away from finding the sound that rocketed their popularity. No, at this point, Voivod was still very rough around the edges and raw. They sounded more like a punk band experimenting with some thrash metal elements than the spacey thrash metal band they would later become.

That is certainly not to say that this is a bad release. In fact, it's quite the opposite. This is an intriguing look at what the band once sounded like. The rawness of their sound is endearing actually. There are enough thrash and heavy metal influences present to keep the metalheads interested while also appealing to punk fans. One must remember that thrash started with groups like Metallica and Overkill combining metal with punk. This is just a further example of that.

This is actually an amazing debut album. Voivod's sound is a cross between the early albums of Slayer and Venom, mixed with Motorhead for good measure. The sci-fi leanings are present in the atmosphere and lyrical content, but it would be a while before they would be major factors in the band's sound. To really understand Voivod, you have to hear their evolution. There is no better start than their debut.