Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice recently spoke to Voivod Drummer Michel 'Away' Langevin about the bands new special anniversary studio album 'Morgöth Tales' that will be released July 21, 2023 via Century Media.
Away also spoke about Voivod's upcoming album re-releases, AI and gave an update on writing new music and the releaser date of the upcoming Voivod documentary.
Watch full interview here
When asked about the new album' Morgöth Tales' that features re-recordings songs from the band's catalog
"The result is really great. The whole album you can really see the progression of the band over the years because we did the album tracks in chronological order, plus we wrote a song on tour for this album to show who we are now. Morgoth Tales is a great sounding album but the challenge is not to recapture the youthful energy and all that but it's to give the people our impression of these songs now."
When asked about choosing the songs for the new re-recording studio album
'We just picked a bunch of songs that could fit onto Vinyl. Then we decided to add a bonus track for the CD, which is a cover of P.I.L. called 'Home'. We wanted to do a P.I.L. cover and when we read the lyrics of that song we understood that it was the right one to do cause it's really relevant, talking about what is going on right now. Johnny Rotten has always been a hero for Snake and I in particular."
When asked about the Jason Newsted era and how he joined the band
'Well what happened was a year after the band split (around 2000), Piggy and I got anxious and checked out with Snake if he wanted to join the band again. So we thought let's phone Jason (Newsted) because we had done so many records with him in the past and he immediately got excited and ended up joining the band. The funny thing is when I phoned him to ask him to be a guest bassist on the album (originally), he said how did you know I just left Metallica? But it was just a very strange coincidence. We are also looking into re-releasing the self titled Voivod album with Jason Newsted (2003). We secured the rights but I think we will save this re-release of this self-titled album for next year."
When asked about when the Voivod documentary will be completed
"It is near completion, just a little more editing here and there. I am sure it is going to be out next year (2024), same with the book. "
When asked about if Voivod started writing new music
" So on the last tour we just did, on the road we have been writing some ideas on our computesr. In October to January we might be able to write a new album hopefully"
When asked about AI and technology today in music
"I will always try to use technology as much as I can use it in music and video but what I am most afraid of is AI controlling high tech weaponry, this is my main fear. "
Once more recorded and mixed by Francis Perron at RadicArt Studio, mastered by Maor Appelbaum and produced by VOIVOD, Morgöth Tales includes fresh studio (re-)recordings by the band’s current line-up of 9 especially selected, not-so-obvious picks from the band’s hyper-classy and extremely diverse back catalogue (between 1984 and 2003) as well as a brand-new song in the album’s title-track, “Morgöth Tales”.
VOIVOD – Morgöth Tales tacks list
Condemned To The Gallows (2023 Version) [Originally on Metal Massacre V Compilation, 1984]
Thrashing Rage (2023 Version) [Originally on “Rrröööaaarrr”, 1986]
Killing Technology (2023 Version) [Originally on “Killing Technology”, 1987]
Macrosolutions To Megaproblems (2023 Version) [Originally on“Dimension Hatröss”, 1988]
Pre-Ignition (2023 Version) [Originally on “Nothingface”, 1989]
Nuage Fractal (2023 Version) [Originally on “Angel Rat”, 1991]
Fix My Heart (2023 Version) [Originally on “The Outer Limits”, 1993]
Rise (2023 Version, feat. Eric Forrest) [Originally on “Phobos”, 1997]
Rebel Robot (2023 Version, feat. Jason Newsted) [Originally on “Voivod”, 2003]
Morgöth Tales [New Song]
VOIVOD drummer Michel “Away” Langevin commented about Morgöth Tales as follows: “’Morgöth Tales’ covers 40 years of space exploration. It was really exciting for us to revisit a more obscure part of the Voïvod catalogue, from thrash-punk to prog-metal to…? The title track is a new song, which we started writing in the tour bus and hotels during the Opeth European tour in November/December 2022. It has the vibe of the experimental music we are doing nowadays, with a new twist I think. We also had the great thrill of getting E-Force and Jasonic involved on this album. I hope you’ll dig it, Chewy, Rocky, Snake and I certainly had a blast recording it. All aboard and ready for take off!“
VOIVOD line-up:
Dominic “Rocky” Laroche – Bass
Michel "Away" Langevin - Drums
Denis “Snake” Bélanger – Vocals
Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain – Guitar
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