Angel Rat is my second favorite Voivod album. I think it's a misunderstood and underrated masterpiece. And you know, the first time I heard it, I thought it was just alright. The hooks didn't really sink in just yet. But it only took a couple more tries for me to realize how awesome it is. There are so many brilliant subtleties and out-STANDING hooks and riffs, and the atmosphere is very strange and interesting while still standing in contrast to the band's usual cold sci-fi. The lyrics and artwork feel a little more warm, sentimental and whimsical, which fits the music quite well. I also love the production even though I think I've read Blacky kinda dogging on it in interviews. Those two much-maligned remixes are actually out there as "Angel Rat Sampler", they're okay.
I’m glad to see a lot of people commenting on Angel Rat with positive remarks. Actually, I have no doubts that it’s a good album. I think in my video, I said that if that had been the first Voivod album I ever heard and it was in the nineties, I would have snapped it up right away and sought out more. A lot of bands have that one album that sticks out from their catalogue that fans didn’t like at the time, but now the album is held in high regard. I think I need to listen again and just get into the album as it is and forget about Killing Technology or any other Voivod that drew me to the band.
Really! Wow! Well that's really cool! I was actually just thinking about it the other night. I think I said this in a video somewhere, but if I'd heard Angel Rat first and around the time it came out, I'd think Voivod was a really awesome Canadian band that I should get into. But I got War and Pain when it came out and then Killing Technology next, so I had different expectations of the band. After Nothingface, I didn't buy any Voivod albums for about 20 years. I missed out on a lot!
@@musicisajourney Thank you so much for this epic story about Voivod!!! I watched all 3 parts and love it! I checked your channel (and follow now) - we are the same age and love the same music ;)The guy next to me in highschool was a big Rush fan and introduced me to Rush. Later he showed me Voivod's Nothingface. So that was my start ;) When Angel Rat came out a friend visited me over. He put a CD inside my player and said: guess what it is! I was blown away, couple songs in and with a whole wrong guesses by my side he revealed that it is Voivod. This is THE perfect album for me. After the departure of Blacky I was so upset (for me he is a HUGE part of the sound) that I gave Outer Limits never quite the chance it deserved. I just discovered the album again recently. THANK YOU again for this amazing piece about Voivod - I still have a lot to watch in your channel :)
@@royblakk You mentioned Rush and Voivod. I think they must be the two most interesting bands to come out of Canada and get noticed internationally. Thanks for sharing your story about Angel Rat. I was shocked when I saw Jason Newsted was in Voivod instead of Blacky. Actually, Jason is a great guy from what I've read, and I like a lot of the songs he played on. But for me, one of the things that made Voivod special was Blacky's bass. I think the band is in a good place now with Chewy and Rocky. Blacky is hoping to publish a book about his career. I hope he can do it. And I hope you find some other videos worth your time. Thank you so much for watching and leaving me some comments!
Excellent video series. Voivod has been one of my favorite bands for over 20 years now and I learned many things about the band I never knew before. While it is certainly a departure from their former sound, Angel Rat, I think is a brilliant album. It sounds great as do all their releases on MCA/Mechanic. Highlights for me include Panorama, Clouds In My House, The Outcast, Nuage Fractal. In my opinion there isn't a bad song on it. I also enjoy Phobos very much and agree that it is probably their darkest album. The song you mentioned with the huge sounding interlude is actually the title track Phobos. That whole song is absolutely brilliant and the interlude with that pounding drum and guitar part and ambient reverb is one of my favorite parts of any Voivod song. Anyway, thanks for the video.
Miguel, thank you so much for watching and sharing your thoughts. I watched and read a lot of interviews in preparation for this video and I learned a lot myself. When I'm in the mood, Angel Rat sounds very good. If that had been my first Voivod album and I had heard it around 1991/92, I would have loved it! Yes, Phobos and Neutrino are my two favourite tracks on that album. Both are fantastic for setting mood and are powerful. I'm glad to see so many people sharing positive thoughts on the band and my videos. I really appreciate it! Thanks again!
Thanks for all of your hard work putting this all together. I've been a metal fan since the late 80s but I'm just getting into Voivod this past year. I'm loving the journey of of discovering this amazing, unique band and these videos are great and exactly what I needed to learn more about Voivod.
J.G. Thirlwell was involved in the early industrial music scene, playing with Cabaret Voltaire whilst in the band PragVEC and later releasing his debut release under the Foetus title in 1981. Looking through his work got me to rediscover Voivod, since I had drifted away from heavy metal & punk music into more experimental electronic territories, and I really wanna listen to them again. But his music's pretty good, even if it may not be some form of rock music.
Oh, I don't know anything about the groups and artists you started out mentioning, but if you enjoyed listening to Voivod again, that's something I can relate to.
Very excellent content on Voivod. Thank you for making these videos. Just mentioning that the Negatron tour was in 1996 and not 1986 (humble mistake at 17:08). The accident that brought E-Force in coma and rehab for months is so sad. Surely, it broke the momentum they were trying to get back at that time. I do love that period of Voivod with E-Force. I remember listening to Phobos album continuously when travelling during my college years.
Yes, it does seem like the Fates were steering Voivod back to Snake, and E-Force new it. It would have been cool to get that Voivod story album with Eric. I often mix up my eighties and nineties while speaking. In quite a few videos I was able to catch the error during editing and I can add the proper year in text. This time I missed it.
Great videos, Peter! I love the clear amount of thought and research that's gone into these. I've always felt Angel Rat was overlooked - it's different, but it's still Voivod. I sort of came to Voivod 'sideways'. I got into post-punk acts like Killing Joke and UK Decay, and already liked metal and progressive rock. I was about 17 at the time and the guy in my local record shop seemed to like me and gave me Dimension Hatross to listen to, basically saying "Imagine putting Metallica, Killing Joke and Gentle Giant in a blender." That was that, really!
First, thanks so much for the compliment! Second, that's interesting that you liked post-punk, prog, and metal. I suppose we're close that way but I never really got into post-punk enough to buy any albums. I heard a lot of songs from a couple of friends though. Voivod intrigued me because I could hear the punk influence but they were still metal and then so different from everyone else. Thanks for watching all the videos and taking time to share your Voivod experience!
Just watched parts 1 and 2 of this today. These are really well done. Love this band so much. Also just wanted to say that, although Negatron might be my least listened to Voivod album (it's still fairly cool though, which just goes to show how good this band is), Phobos is one of my own personal favourites. I don't really feel they are that similar, even though Phobos does have some of that heavy and slightly groovy 90s quality to it. Phobos is for me far more immersive, dark and scary, and feels like a unified concept. Also love the production, the variety of E-Force's vocal approaches, and the songwriting. Even the weird sci-fi synth interludes are cool.
Thank you for watching and commenting. Yes, I have a special affection for Phobos, Negatron might have been a warm up. Phobos is where they really hit it with that line up.
I'm french (Qc) "Deuxième partie" or "2e partie" would be the correct way to name it ;) Awesome video btw. Very informative. Angel Rat is my favorite of theirs
For crazed thrash Killing Technology is my go to but Angel Rat hits the hardest emotionally. Great depth of writing. Snakes vocals sound amazing, almost ethereal in parts. Piggy's chords and left to hang in your brain a bit longer.
So much love for Angel Rat out there! Terry Brown can feel vindicated! I need to listen to that album without thinking of Voivod. Just consider it a nineties release and go with it.
It took me a while. I still have to think of it independently of the catalogue before it feels right. But I'm glad to see a lot of people really like it!
I think Eric gave them potential for a new start, but he seemed very humble, not wanting to push anything, just offer what he had and accept what was accepted by the two founders.
I know they toured with Kreator and I think it was Celtic Frost or another big name band from the day. I think they difficulty was that they were an extreme metal band that was touring with other extreme metal bands. So they got known to fans of extreme metal, but that's not a huge crowd when compared to mainstream music.
Razor I know but only have two albums. Looking at a couple more. Sacrifice, I have all five albums. Onslaught I don’t know so well. And Anvil I only recently got into (had to miss their show last Friday). I did a ranking the albums of Anvil not long ago though. Great suggestions, though. I saw one about Razor last year.
That may be true that the sound is not up to par with other Voivod albums. I didn't notice that myself. But I remember a review saying the base drum sound on Negatron sounding to clicky.
18:35 Temps mort (pronounced tɑ̃ mɔʁ, you were not that far off) has different meanings but in this case I guess they meant something among the line of "timeout"
I did my best but I know I’m off. Thank out, though. I appreciate the correction. If I hear someone say it, I will probably do a better job. Time out, eh? Yes, there are a lot of idioms in languages that mustn’t be taken literally.
Jack Luminous is my favorite Voivod song, and maybe my favorite song period.
Angel Rat is my second favorite Voivod album. I think it's a misunderstood and underrated masterpiece. And you know, the first time I heard it, I thought it was just alright. The hooks didn't really sink in just yet. But it only took a couple more tries for me to realize how awesome it is. There are so many brilliant subtleties and out-STANDING hooks and riffs, and the atmosphere is very strange and interesting while still standing in contrast to the band's usual cold sci-fi. The lyrics and artwork feel a little more warm, sentimental and whimsical, which fits the music quite well. I also love the production even though I think I've read Blacky kinda dogging on it in interviews. Those two much-maligned remixes are actually out there as "Angel Rat Sampler", they're okay.
I’m glad to see a lot of people commenting on Angel Rat with positive remarks. Actually, I have no doubts that it’s a good album. I think in my video, I said that if that had been the first Voivod album I ever heard and it was in the nineties, I would have snapped it up right away and sought out more.
A lot of bands have that one album that sticks out from their catalogue that fans didn’t like at the time, but now the album is held in high regard. I think I need to listen again and just get into the album as it is and forget about Killing Technology or any other Voivod that drew me to the band.
for me, Angel Rat is far more than just music, it's a piece of magic
Angel Rat is not only my favourite Voivod album - it is my favourite album of all time!
Really! Wow! Well that's really cool! I was actually just thinking about it the other night. I think I said this in a video somewhere, but if I'd heard Angel Rat first and around the time it came out, I'd think Voivod was a really awesome Canadian band that I should get into. But I got War and Pain when it came out and then Killing Technology next, so I had different expectations of the band. After Nothingface, I didn't buy any Voivod albums for about 20 years. I missed out on a lot!
@@musicisajourney Thank you so much for this epic story about Voivod!!! I watched all 3 parts and love it! I checked your channel (and follow now) - we are the same age and love the same music ;)The guy next to me in highschool was a big Rush fan and introduced me to Rush. Later he showed me Voivod's Nothingface. So that was my start ;)
When Angel Rat came out a friend visited me over. He put a CD inside my player and said: guess what it is! I was blown away, couple songs in and with a whole wrong guesses by my side he revealed that it is Voivod. This is THE perfect album for me.
After the departure of Blacky I was so upset (for me he is a HUGE part of the sound) that I gave Outer Limits never quite the chance it deserved. I just discovered the album again recently.
THANK YOU again for this amazing piece about Voivod - I still have a lot to watch in your channel :)
@@royblakk You mentioned Rush and Voivod. I think they must be the two most interesting bands to come out of Canada and get noticed internationally.
Thanks for sharing your story about Angel Rat. I was shocked when I saw Jason Newsted was in Voivod instead of Blacky. Actually, Jason is a great guy from what I've read, and I like a lot of the songs he played on. But for me, one of the things that made Voivod special was Blacky's bass. I think the band is in a good place now with Chewy and Rocky. Blacky is hoping to publish a book about his career. I hope he can do it.
And I hope you find some other videos worth your time. Thank you so much for watching and leaving me some comments!
Excellent video series. Voivod has been one of my favorite bands for over 20 years now and I learned many things about the band I never knew before. While it is certainly a departure from their former sound, Angel Rat, I think is a brilliant album. It sounds great as do all their releases on MCA/Mechanic. Highlights for me include Panorama, Clouds In My House, The Outcast, Nuage Fractal. In my opinion there isn't a bad song on it. I also enjoy Phobos very much and agree that it is probably their darkest album. The song you mentioned with the huge sounding interlude is actually the title track Phobos. That whole song is absolutely brilliant and the interlude with that pounding drum and guitar part and ambient reverb is one of my favorite parts of any Voivod song. Anyway, thanks for the video.
Miguel, thank you so much for watching and sharing your thoughts. I watched and read a lot of interviews in preparation for this video and I learned a lot myself. When I'm in the mood, Angel Rat sounds very good. If that had been my first Voivod album and I had heard it around 1991/92, I would have loved it! Yes, Phobos and Neutrino are my two favourite tracks on that album. Both are fantastic for setting mood and are powerful. I'm glad to see so many people sharing positive thoughts on the band and my videos. I really appreciate it! Thanks again!
Excellent and informative, very educational, even for a lifelong Voivod fanatic like myself! Well done!
Thank you so much, Stan! I learned a lot myself. Now I’ve got to get working on part 3!
Thanks for all of your hard work putting this all together. I've been a metal fan since the late 80s but I'm just getting into Voivod this past year. I'm loving the journey of of discovering this amazing, unique band and these videos are great and exactly what I needed to learn more about Voivod.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment! I hope you will really enjoy more of Voivod's music. There's no band quite like them!
J.G. Thirlwell was involved in the early industrial music scene, playing with Cabaret Voltaire whilst in the band PragVEC and later releasing his debut release under the Foetus title in 1981. Looking through his work got me to rediscover Voivod, since I had drifted away from heavy metal & punk music into more experimental electronic territories, and I really wanna listen to them again. But his music's pretty good, even if it may not be some form of rock music.
Oh, I don't know anything about the groups and artists you started out mentioning, but if you enjoyed listening to Voivod again, that's something I can relate to.
Thank you for so much insight on such a perfect band!
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Many thanks for watching and commenting!
Very excellent content on Voivod. Thank you for making these videos. Just mentioning that the Negatron tour was in 1996 and not 1986 (humble mistake at 17:08). The accident that brought E-Force in coma and rehab for months is so sad. Surely, it broke the momentum they were trying to get back at that time. I do love that period of Voivod with E-Force. I remember listening to Phobos album continuously when travelling during my college years.
Yes, it does seem like the Fates were steering Voivod back to Snake, and E-Force new it. It would have been cool to get that Voivod story album with Eric.
I often mix up my eighties and nineties while speaking. In quite a few videos I was able to catch the error during editing and I can add the proper year in text. This time I missed it.
Great videos, Peter! I love the clear amount of thought and research that's gone into these. I've always felt Angel Rat was overlooked - it's different, but it's still Voivod.
I sort of came to Voivod 'sideways'. I got into post-punk acts like Killing Joke and UK Decay, and already liked metal and progressive rock. I was about 17 at the time and the guy in my local record shop seemed to like me and gave me Dimension Hatross to listen to, basically saying "Imagine putting Metallica, Killing Joke and Gentle Giant in a blender." That was that, really!
First, thanks so much for the compliment!
Second, that's interesting that you liked post-punk, prog, and metal. I suppose we're close that way but I never really got into post-punk enough to buy any albums. I heard a lot of songs from a couple of friends though.
Voivod intrigued me because I could hear the punk influence but they were still metal and then so different from everyone else.
Thanks for watching all the videos and taking time to share your Voivod experience!
Just watched parts 1 and 2 of this today. These are really well done. Love this band so much. Also just wanted to say that, although Negatron might be my least listened to Voivod album (it's still fairly cool though, which just goes to show how good this band is), Phobos is one of my own personal favourites. I don't really feel they are that similar, even though Phobos does have some of that heavy and slightly groovy 90s quality to it. Phobos is for me far more immersive, dark and scary, and feels like a unified concept. Also love the production, the variety of E-Force's vocal approaches, and the songwriting. Even the weird sci-fi synth interludes are cool.
Thank you for watching and commenting. Yes, I have a special affection for Phobos, Negatron might have been a warm up. Phobos is where they really hit it with that line up.
Great video man. Truly enjoyed it. I do like Voivod but I’m not a die hard fan. And yet I still really enjoy your multi part history of the band.
Thank you so much for watching even if you're not a big fan. I really appreciate your time and your comment!
Loving these Voivod videos - learning a lot - Neutrino is also the track I always think of when I think of Phobos - amazing
I'm glad you are enjoying them. I learned a lot more than I imagined when I was making these.
@@musicisajourney Looking forward to checking out part 3 - I'm quite partial to the Jasonic era
Really enjoying this! Lifelong fan since War and Pain...
I heard that Blacky retrieved the tapes for Angel Rat. I would pay handsomely for his remix.
If only he could release it!
I’ve heard through the clouds in my house that there’s some prow happening with the overall panorama of this thread.
Another great episode. Very well done, comprehensive but concise. Loved it 🖤🤘🏻🙂
I'm so pleased! Thank you! I wanted to do a good job for Voivod.
Good information here, thank you for posting!
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Great series on Voivod! But shouldn't the title be Part Deux? 😂😂
Oh, I missed a grand opportunity there!
I'm french (Qc) "Deuxième partie" or "2e partie" would be the correct way to name it ;) Awesome video btw. Very informative. Angel Rat is my favorite of theirs
Nothing's stopping you to modify the video title if you want to. Again, awesome work
What killed Angel Rat was the video for Clouds in my House.
I’ll have to watch that again!
For crazed thrash Killing Technology is my go to but Angel Rat hits the hardest emotionally. Great depth of writing. Snakes vocals sound amazing, almost ethereal in parts. Piggy's chords and left to hang in your brain a bit longer.
So much love for Angel Rat out there! Terry Brown can feel vindicated! I need to listen to that album without thinking of Voivod. Just consider it a nineties release and go with it.
I actually really liked it after I got over my shock lol
C'était très bien! 😊👍👏
Je vous remercie!
I love Angel rat and Outer Limits.
Outer Limits is great! Angel Rat is more of a deep dive for me. I have to listen well to hear the genius.
HATED Angel Rat when it came out. Now it’s my favorite VOIVOD.
It took me a while. I still have to think of it independently of the catalogue before it feels right. But I'm glad to see a lot of people really like it!
3:16 and so it was. Nothing they have done since matches their 80’s output although Eric was fresh.
I think Eric gave them potential for a new start, but he seemed very humble, not wanting to push anything, just offer what he had and accept what was accepted by the two founders.
@@musicisajourney mmmm… too bad. He had the complete package otherwise
@@rebusd Well, he has his own band, E-Force.
Voivod supported Today is the Day in 1999 in the UK, Eric was on crutches then.
I read about that. It took him a long time to recover.
Having European tour support from the label would have altered history.
I know they toured with Kreator and I think it was Celtic Frost or another big name band from the day. I think they difficulty was that they were an extreme metal band that was touring with other extreme metal bands. So they got known to fans of extreme metal, but that's not a huge crowd when compared to mainstream music.
Look at the history of a band razor sacrifice onslaught anvil
Razor I know but only have two albums. Looking at a couple more. Sacrifice, I have all five albums. Onslaught I don’t know so well. And Anvil I only recently got into (had to miss their show last Friday). I did a ranking the albums of Anvil not long ago though.
Great suggestions, though. I saw one about Razor last year.
The snare drum sound on Phobos (similar to Lars Ulrich's St. Anger sound) made the album practically unlistenable to me. I might need to revisit it.
That may be true that the sound is not up to par with other Voivod albums. I didn't notice that myself. But I remember a review saying the base drum sound on Negatron sounding to clicky.
18:35
Temps mort (pronounced tɑ̃ mɔʁ, you were not that far off) has different meanings but in this case I guess they meant something among the line of "timeout"
I did my best but I know I’m off. Thank out, though. I appreciate the correction. If I hear someone say it, I will probably do a better job.
Time out, eh? Yes, there are a lot of idioms in languages that mustn’t be taken literally.
I like phobos, prob the best non snake album
Me too! It has such a cool sound and atmosphere.