Voivod: Post Society

With their customary panache, Voivod now seem to have hit the same kind of form that they routinely displayed prior to the untimely death of six-string ingénue Piggy in 2005.

Channelling the best of their greatest glories, with particular reference to Dimension Hatröss and Nothingface, this gleefully sustains the fervent momentum that has typified the band’s post-Piggy efforts. As a result, the four new tunes that make up the bulk of Post Society seem somehow bigger, bolder and more wickedly inventive than anything Voivod have produced since the late 80s. The title track is a classic Voivod rager. All staircase-nosedive clatter and prime Snake sneer, it hides its proggy swagger beneath a thick wall of synchronised riffing, but the psychedelic undertow is unmistakable.

Channelling the best of their greatest glories, with particular reference to Dimension Hatröss and Nothingface, this gleefully sustains the fervent momentum that has typified the band’s post-Piggy efforts. As a result, the four new tunes that make up the bulk of Post Society seem somehow bigger, bolder and more wickedly inventive than anything Voivod have produced since the late 80s. The title track is a classic Voivod rager. All staircase-nosedive clatter and prime Snake sneer, it hides its proggy swagger beneath a thick wall of synchronised riffing, but the psychedelic undertow is unmistakable.

Forever Mountain is even better, as churning riffs in ⁵⁄₄ whip up a storm of oddball menace. Fall is greater still, a futurist epic with a heavy heart, while We Are Connected (first released as part of a split single with Napalm Death in 2015) returns like a demented relative.

It ends with a sublime cover of Hawkwind’s Silver Machine, an accidental tribute to Lemmy that gives space rock a jolting steroid injection (and a half). Joyvod, more like.