Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice recently interviewed Voivod's drummer Michel (Away) Langevin at Heavy Montreal on July 29 2018
Away spoke about the bands new upcoing album The Wake, the origins of their band nicknames, Jason Newsted era of the band and working with famed Rush producer Terry Brown on their 1991 album Angel Rat
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When asked about the new upcoming album called THE WAKE "The Wake is more of a prog metal album similar to Phobas and Dimension Hatross with a long story (concept album) all the way through, it's very intricate and it's coming out on September 21 2018. The album's musical style has also the thrash metal elements and the punk side as well. It's different from the last LP Target Earth 2013, however it is similar to the E.P. Post Society that we released two years ago. It's sort of a continuation to Post Society with the new band line up, if anything it's sort of like a new direction sort of fusion metal in a way. There is a very good chemistry right now with the band and the main writer is guitarist Chewy Daniel Mongrain ." When asked what guitarist Chewy Daniel Mongrain who replaced Piggy brings to the band "I can still hear the Voivod signature with Piggy's chords in Chewy's style but Piggy was a bit more old school like Motorhead, Chewy is more new school, he has more of a new edge but what I really like is he brings more of a jazzy style cause it makes me play differently, he brings a lot to the new style of Voivod." When asked about their nicknames "Chewy is a big fan of Star Wars that is how he got his name. Rocky's real name is Dominique Laroche and his last name translates to The Rock and his musical name in the music scene in Quebec is ROCK so we just said you have to be Rocky. Snake came from when we started the band he was in improv theater and he had to imitate a worm and he crawled like a snake so we called him Snake. As for my name Away it is mainly because of my drawings but it is also when I was studying science at the university and I had had rehearsals, I could not cope with doing both so I was Away from rehearsals." When asked about acquiring the rights to their biggest hit Astronomy Domine off their breakout album Nothingface "Through MCA we were able to reach out to David Gilmore and he had to approved our version of the song and he did and it got on heavy rotation on MTV." When asked about when Jason Newsted era in the band (2002-2008) "Jason first came to see us in San Francisco in the 80's and we kept in touch. Then between 1989-and 1999 we went to his studio many times in San Francisco and we did some projects together and when we reformed with Snake in 2001 we asked Jason to play on our album one song but he loved it so much he played on the whole album (the self titled album) and joined the band. When Piggy passed away 2005 he had such a musical connection to Piggy he just could not go on. " VOIVOD will release their new studio album, "The Wake", on September 21 for via Century Media Records
"The Wake" track listing:
01. Obsolete Beings 02. The End Of Dormancy 03. Orb Confusion 04. Iconspiracy 05. Spherical Perspective 06. Event Horizon 07. Always Moving 08. Sonic Mycelium
Helix Brian Vollmer- talks New Helix Album, Gene Simmons, Lemmy @Heavy Montreal 2018