Voivod - Katorz (2006)

Amazing how these once inhospitable orcs of iron carved a career without ever sticking to the same path. Whether from the spiky landscapes of 'war & Pain' or the eerie vacuum of 'Nothingface', Voivod have always moved light years ahead, into the realms they only had the vision to create. 'Katorz', featuring Jason Newstead on bass, is a buzzing menace of a record that instills the same dread as previous but only this time the band create a more punkoid rock 'n' roll garbage truck to drive you through the weird scenes and frenzied psychedelia. 'Katorz' is a thorny, dirty record of jarring rock 'n' roll that will always sound like nothing else. Voivod are the Frankenstein of metal, a monster invented so uniquely that it will always have one foot in its primal cave. From Snake's sneering pipes to Piggy's unmistakable clanking guitars and Away's surreal and vast drumscapes, there is nothing here to hold onto because of it's barbed substance. Voivod, on this record, have become a guttural, primitive new wave punkoid act, a tribe of many, mainly rusted colours that can churn out cuts such as 'Mr Clean', 'The X-Stream' and 'The Getaway' as if they are a new, raw band on the block, a world away from the ironmonger thrash of the '80s or the Pink Floyd mutation of later years. There's nothing more that anyone can say about these guys. 'Katorz' isn't afraid to become a punk record, and because of this it naturally lacks the warfare of early records and the dread-inducing dream sequences. So, the rating reflects the fact that this is a solid record, but a record showing a band becoming slightly more normal, if that's at all possible, and to give it a higher mark would be disrespectful to their other records which for me, particularly in the forms of 'war And pain', 'RRROOOAAARRRR', 'Dimesnion Hatross' and 'Angel rat', are genius.

7.5/10