Voivod
Nothingface

THE REVIEW

These four creators of the musical maze bordering Metal, Industrial, and Dark-Punk have chosen their identity inspired by an ancient barbarian population; a fitting definition given that, in the first four albums, they have revealed themselves as true sound barbarians, capable of wild outbursts and raw compositions.

"Nothingface" of '89 was a remarkable step forward; indeed, the music becomes more complex, refined, even more oppressive, but despite this, Voivod have not forgotten their origins, and once again manage to bring forth that sci-fi nightmare amid the nuclear wreckage of a crumbling post-industrial society. However, apart from pieces like "The Unknown Knows," where Heavy Metal still leads the lyrics towards a cosmic spectacle, Industrial generally dictates the rhythms and with them the constant hallucinations, surreal visions, and technological chaos.

The title track stands out as a mechanical ritual and manages to unleash disturbance while uprooting the mental threshold of reality, as it tears and prickles, as it rushes and crashes through a chemical inferno. By the third track, psychedelia takes over as the band showcases an exhilarating cover of Pink Floyd, specifically "Astronomy Domine," which foreshadows the destruction and bewilderment of all subsequent songs, constructed to emphasize and delineate the shadows, images themselves of confusion, now the only physical law of this new space. The voice with cold features and metallic timbre that often seems to come from a cyborg belongs to the singer Snake, who sings a march that corrodes shapes and colors and expresses lucidly in the artificial apocalypse of which it is an integral part.

"Nothingface" is a work to be appreciated as a whole, capable of making one live the psychotic environment, the virtual odyssey it describes of a drifting world. "I hope, I need, I want to dream..."