This is a very stripped-down album. Most of the spacey riffs and sci-fi weirdness that typically accompany Voivod albums has been taken away. What is left is still obviously Voivod, and I think that most people familiar enough with the band would be able to identify it as such. But it is missing a lot of what made the band interesting in the first place.
This was a highly anticipated release at the time. It was the first album with Snake back in vocals and there was a sense of excitement with Newsted coming aboard. And there are definitely some good moments on this release. All of the songs have a hard-driving feel to them and many of the riffs are very impressive. Piggy has always been a terrific riff-writer and that ability shines through on this release. The songs are definitely catchy.
The problems are as mentioned earlier, that there is a dearth of what made Voivod truly special on this release. The riffs still have the typical Voivod feel but the band feels like a shell of its former self. It feels more like a band trying to be Voivod than Voivod itself.
This is by no means a bad album, but it does not hold a candle to Voivod's first five albums.
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