Voivod - Post Society (EP)

The mighty Voivod are one of my favorite bands, and I've always admired how consistently creative and weird they've managed to be, despite some tumultuous lineup changes (including of course the tragic death of Piggy D'Amour). While I was initially skeptical of the addition of former Cryptopsy and Gorguts axeman Daniel Mongrain as Piggy's replacement, he managed to win me over on their last album, 2013's Target Earth. It's neat to see a band stick around so long and still have so much energy and creativity; I saw them last year on the Deathcrusher tour and they still put on a great show. Love these guys.

With all that out of the way, I must say, I think this 30-minute EP is their strongest release in a while. While I enjoyed Target Earth, I had some problems with the muddy production, and it felt like the band was still trying to work the kinks out with the new lineup. The guitar tone on this EP is a revelation for the band I think; it sounds like he's mostly playing on a single-coil pickup, and the clarity it brings does wonders. Piggy's playing style, which Mongrain mostly faithfully emulates, has always been something like 'funk goes thrash', and I think it really benefits from this new clean sound. The bass is crunchy as fuck, a Voivod specialty, and serves to nicely drive the songs forward.

As usual, the band manages to write some bizarrely catchy songs. Much of the lyrical content here seems to deal with more personal themes, a change from Voivod's usual wacko sci-fi fare. There's a few curveballs; the beginning of 'Fall' is nice and soft, and almost (but not quite) beautiful; there's a nice doomy section in the middle of 'We Are Connected'. The biggest curveball of all, thought, has to be the last track, 'Silver Machine', which is... Voivod does 70s cock rock?? Or something? Whatever it is, it's a hella upbeat song that'll stay in yer head for the rest of the day, guaranteed.

Don't let that cover art fool you; you'll walk away from this EP feeling happy as a clam (I did).

4/5