SOUNDTRACK: VOIVOD-Nothingface (1989).
I have talked about Nothingface before, but here it is in sequence with the Voivod catalog.
This is the culmination of Voivod’s move toward progressive metal. Even nearly 25 years after its release, this remains one of my favorite albums ever. The guitar chords are complex and wonderful. Snakes’ voice is melodic with odd tinges of weirdness thrown in—where he goes up or down a note unexpectedly. Plus, he has that peculiar pronunciation/emphasis that makes the words sound even more exotic (like “repugnant”). And despite the fact that they cover Pink Floyd (!), the album is still heavy.
The whole band is in top form here—Away’s drumming is explosive and complex, Blacky has a fantastic rumbling sound that’s not distorted but really fills in the bottom end and Piggy’s guitar is masterful. “The Unknown Knows” has some cool staggered notes and a great catchy guitar riff during the verses but the time changes come fast and furious. I love the way the guitar and bass play off each other in this song. But then comes the cover of “Astronomy Domine”. Imagine the band from War and Pain who used to cover Slayer and Venom now covering Pink Floyd. It’s hard to fathom, but man, do they pull it off wonderfully—adding a heavy bass element but keeping it very faithful. And Away’s drumming is stellar. It’s a marvelous cover.
“Missing Sequences” starts with a cool bass line and Snake’s great pause… “NOW!” Then when he starts singing again, his voice is phased in a very cool sci-fi kind of way. There’s also some interesting effects—keyboards maybe–in many of the songs. There’s also a great part where there’s a rumbling bass and Snake’s scream of “GO!” before a weird guitar solo and then even weirder shifted guitar chords. It’s magnificent.
As is the guitar playing in the verses for “X-Ray.” I’m not even sure how Piggy came up with the bizarre chords in “Pre-Ignition.” And yet despite the harshness, there’s pretty melodies like in the cool catchy “ground and rock and sand” section of the song. And as for pretty, the quiet beauty that opens “Into My Hypercube” is really impressive for such a dissonant album—Snake whispers his vocals and the guitars are all pretty, major chords. Until the bridge where dissonance enters and then the post bridge (who even knows what to call these song parts) which is once again a heavy round of dissonant chords. And then when the “tumult in the dark” section starts, it’s practically a whole new song—until Blacky’s bass section reintroduces the beginning motif.
The final track has a wonderful moment where Snake’s voice follows Piggy’ unusual guitar line perfectly. And then the very cool almost funky (great bass sound) of Blacky after the “too late for S.O.S.” line. The album ends abruptly (too late for S.O.S.) and you’re left contemplating everything that just happened (I haven’t even mentioned the lyrics).
It’s a prog metal masterpiece.
[READ: August 26, 2013] Werewolves of Montpellier
I enjoyed Jason’s Lost Cat so much that I went to the library and checked out some other books by him as well.
Werewolves has the same looking characters as in Lost Cat, but they are different people (I assume). The strange thing about this book is that the werewolves don’t look all that different from the main drawings. At first I wasn’t even sure that he was wearing the werewolf mask. But on closer inspection there are subtle differences (the eyes, the ears, the fingers). Indeed, it took two reads for me to really notice all the subtle details. Nevertheless, it’s just funny to imagine the characters thinking he was a werewolf when he looks for the most part the same anyway.
But so this story starts with the main character, Sven, dressed like a werwolf and breaking into someone’s house. When the victim comes home, she catches him, but is frightened and he flees out the window. In the next scene his next door neighbor, Audrey, (not his girlfriend, as she is dating a woman named Julie) brings him some food and tells him that he was in the paper (unidentified but in costume).
Then we see the main character and a bird looking guy playing chess in the park (and talking about the value of escalators for checking out women’s asses). The main characters seems to be primarily dog-like and bird-like, but they intermingle freely.
The final new characters are two men talking about the photo. They say that the werewolf in the photo is not part of their brotherhood and they want to punish this newcomer for causing them trouble. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 