Angel Rat

Since they were created, Voivod has experimented with a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean a lot of different sounds and rhythms, always putting something new in every single album they released. At first, they were an aggressive thrash metal band that, in three years, perfected and polished their style into something more technical, and then, jumped into the progressive scene with the amazing Nothingface. After that, Voivod continued their evolution, changing and evolving. I've known Voivod for years, but it was recently when I really got into them through albums like Killing Technology, The Wake, Dimension Hatröss, and I must say I haven't been so addicted to a band since I discovered how good Rush were. Anyway, lets get into Angel Rat.

First of all, and maybe the only things I do not like about this album. First: the artwork. Voivod has some impressive artwork in their albums. Look at The Outer Limits, or Killing Technology, those albums have engaging imagery and are distinctive among the genre they play, but what the fuck did Michel Langevin smoke to say: Hey, I've heard about this new program called Photoshop and it's fucking great, man, lets use this drawing I made!? Maybe it represents something I don't get, but I don't really care: it is so goddamn ugly. And also: what is an Angel Rat? I've been trying to find why this album has that name, because maybe it was some kind of pun I don't understand, hoping it was me, but no, this album really has that name just because.

So, lets start with the music. Is it good? Hell yes, it is amazing. This album came inmediately after Nothingface, which was a huge success in Voivod's career and a monumental album in the progressive metal scene. Nothingface still had that aggressive touch that defined Voivod in the late 80's, but Angel Rat turned 180º and became even more progressive. Some people think that was a bad decision, but with this new step Voivod stablished even more their own sound, they became more Voivod, they did what they thought was more loyal to their identity, they were brave enough to commit to what made Nothingface so goddamn good: the experimentation.

The instrumentation is so complex, so unique and so smooth that you have to play this record several times in order to catch how they combine. Blacky's basswork is so, so important here (even if he despises Angel Rat, he still slaps) and his lines are essential to the sound of this album. If you focus only on his bass, you'll be amused on how he drives the rhythm and creates the base of every single track. Then, Piggy always delivers fucking amazing riffs, catchy melodies that stay in your head for days. When I first listened to Best Regards, I had to instantly play it again, and then again, because I couldn't get that gallop riff in the chorus out of my head. He creates amazing riffs in this album, fun and engaging, making every song different between them.

One of the main issues I have with this album is his inconsistency. The second half is not as good as the first, and it feels sometimes like a different record. While the first 20 minutes holds the best songs, the latter are weaker and not as memorable.

When I read the reviews from this album, one stood out. It said If you don't like Angel Rat, I'm sorry, but you don't like Voivod, and that's 100% real. I must say this record represents what Voivod truly is: they took risks, created their sound, experimented, developed and were loyal to their personal preferences. So, do yourself a favour and play Angel Rat. Is so good, different and amusing, you won't regret it.

Highlights:
- Panorama
- The Prow
- Best Regards
- Twin Dummy

Angel Rat is a curious case. Voivod's evolutionary path had clearly started to steer them away from their speed/thrash roots, and though those were still somewhat present for their iconic fifth release, Nothingface, one of the greatest progressive releases of all time, few could have predicted the follow up's further deviation from what had been their core sound. Sure, the progressive aspect of their sound and identity had been on the ascent since 1987's outstanding Killing Technology, but perhaps a more logical guessing of their next sonic step would have been a foray into the more technical stuff bands like Atheist, Coroner or even the high-flying Megadeth were doing at the dawn of the 90s. Or perhaps they felt confident enough to pull off the maligned but almost mandatory (for progressive bands) concept album. But Voivod wouldn't deny being Voivod to the world, and a much adventurous, weirder, unique and, dare I say, fulfilling route, was chosen by the Canadian extraordinaires.

This is clearly a divisive album, right at home with other examples like the visionary Obscura by their fellow nationals Gorguts, Amorphis' Elegy, the failed duo that is Load and Re-Load, or a more recent and obscure case by yet another Canadian act, the fascinating 2020's Opulent Decay by power trio Spell. And I get it, everybody experiences that from time to time. People were expecting something out of a record, a film, a trip, a new experience, and what they got is markedly outside of those expectations and preconceptions. The contrast is just too much for some to accept, the comfort zone too distant, and the new soundscapes too alien and unrecognizable to enjoy. It's like when I was living in Spain and I gave a few Spanish friends some Pulparindos to taste. Their minds and bodies just weren't prepared for the mixture of spicy, sweet and bitter taste that those industrially produced traditional Mexican sweets detonated inside their mouths. It was not pleasant. They said to me they couldn't even comprehend how an adult would enjoy those, let alone a kid. But then, here we eat that stuff since before we learn how to speak, so…

Angel Rat is like a deluxe special edition Pulparindo, with the best ingredients available, and opened for consumption at the best time, but definitely not for everyone's palate. I'm not sure it was the best time for Voivod to release it, though. It was not as critically nor commercially successful as its predecessor, and perhaps in that regards it is a failure, a missed chance for greater aspirations and a brighter future as a band, despite the fact bassist Blacky already wanted out. But it remains a masterful and delightful exploration of several outer influences the Canadian quartet had not fully nor partially exposed before, and that's why it isn't a surprise that this masterpiece has its great share of supporters, defenders and cultists, like myself. Its classy blend of Nothingface-esque lighter moments with dreamy, psychedelic passages and nods to the most experimental of alternative rock, like Sonic Youth or Swans, is just too interesting to mindlessly discard and disregard as a failure, or even more obnoxiously ordinary, as a “sell-out” effort.

While 'heavier' might equal 'better' for many metalheads, Angel Rat is proof that the loss of heaviness doesn't always translates as loss of quality. I will go further, by stating that while being their most accessible recording, Angel Rat is also their most memorable, with twelve short tunes that will just adhere to any open-minded metalhead's brain like the barnacles on a wave-breaking bow of a ship. Speaking of bows and ships, “The Prow” is my favorite tune here, with its Little Nemo-meets-Peter Pan fantastic imagery, equally maritime as it is cosmic, and its psychedelic rock 'n' roll drive. In less than four minutes time, you experience a trip that's as dreamy as it is intense. But I enjoy them all, and this is one of the albums I can listen in its entirety every day, any day, and I never get tired of it. The pristine production values, clear but potent for all instruments, perfectly balance the trio of musicians weaponry with Snake's vocals, which this time around are less tricky, less focused on inventive and more bent in fluidly narrating these twelve short surreal stories, which lyrically remind me of the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis, only with a high dose of sci-fi replacing the Victorian themes.

“Panorama”, “The Prow” and “Twin Dummy” are the speedier, more energetic tracks, more so in fast alternative rock fashion than as in a speed metal one. The rest of the songs are more mid-paced, but all of them still have those fantastic signature Piggy riffs as their core and primary force. The rhythmic section is usually more straightforward than in previous records, but Blacky and Away still shine throughout the entire voyage, and have their moments in the spotlight as well (just check out the second half of “Best Regards”, exquisite stuff). But 'mid-paced' is just the description of the tempo, in reality there are many sounds and influences coexisting and interacting with each other, like a myriad coral reef creatures; the atmospheric solemnity in the naïve tragedy of “Angel Rat”, the angry, robotic bass-lines of the Asimov-esque “Golem”, the post-punkish “Nuage Fractal”, the cowboy swagger of “The Outcast”, or the progressive build-up of shoegazer “Freedoom”, my second fav here. Angel Rat has bits and parts from many bands and rock genres, and while it decidedly sounds like Voivod, it's unlike anything they had previously concocted.

I understand the disconcert this caused when it was released, but Voivod would more or less carry on in a similar direction with the more accepted The Outer Limits in 1993, re-amping up the heaviness a bit, and trimming away many of the satellite influences Angel Rat exhibits. But now, 30 years after its release, with so many movements, evolutionary roads, experimentation, cross-pollination and what not that have transpired in the metal world, the greatness of Voivod's sixth LP is more evident than ever. Not the expected path perhaps, but this band started to deviate from what was expected from them early on, to the benefit of us all. A curious but flawless path, I'd say, at least well past their first decade of existence. Angel Rat may perhaps forever remain their riskiest business, their overlooked jewel, an ugly duckling for some, but a majestic unique entity for others, a curve ball that ultimately serves its purpose in winning the game.

How to start? Maybe by saying that Voivod is a "love it or hate it" band, misunderstood by most and grasped by very few. If during the 80's the band saw its fame and "street cred" peaking through the roof due to seminal masterpieces like... er, well, basically ANY album that the band released, the very early 90's were indeed controversial and not so imaginative times for the metal world. Albums like "Metallica" and the proliferation of pseudo aggressive movements like grunge stabbed metal enthusiasts in the back with a violence yet unheard of. Metallica and Megadeth adjusted their sound to broader audiences; alternative metal acts like Prong, Helmet, Korn or Alice in Chains started to gather much attention from the audience and record labels; thrash was slowly withering and giving way to a global death metal movement at first that changed to black metal only two years later. One could say that Voivod's "Angel Rat" tried to follow the same steps of the two previously named bands while keeping their unique and exquisite identity, broadening their sound while respecting the die hard fan base that the band has, as well as their roots and honesty as musicians. Enter "Angel Rat".

Truth be said, for those that spread the word with "Killing Technology" on their right and "Nothingface" on the left, "Angel Rat" was something difficult to understand, let alone like. Starting from scratch and throwing away the core of the old conceptual and technical sound that Voivod coined (guitars that sounded like razor sharp blades, intricately technical maddening riffs and structures, themes like space, aliens, the unknown, war, etc.), the band embraced the 90's with their mind on the past but both eyes on the future, as there is no space for the present in the ranks of Voivod. The result is a pool of fine, perfectly polished diamonds that went unnoticed to most prospecting eyes but that, like anything rare on Earth, were plucked by those that knew what they were looking for.

The 80's reminiscent "Shortwave" intro is the perfect kickstart for the first shard, "Panorama", whose lyrics are a far cry of despair and helplessness, while the music is a refreshingly smart approach to more commerical oriented metal music, like most of the album. Right next comes the first eye blink in terms of concept to the old school fan base, in the form of "Clouds In My House", that talks of vastness, infinity and vision, though the sound remains faithfull to the album, not too heavy, very melodic and with that guitar sounding that instantly says Piggy. "The prow" is another sing along beast of a song where the usual analogies that the band has used their listeners to abund: the vast sea is space, the ship is a spacecraft, the treasures of the "seas" being stars, comets, etc. Finally, and to end the highlights, the eponymous "Angel Rat", very mellow and slow paced, and yet very dark and depressive, revealing a yet unknown facet of Snake, which is actually SINGING per se.

Because the band signed to a major record company, it had access to other sort of means, but the most important was certainly the production of Terry Brown, that turned what could be one of metal's greatest flops in terms of production in a perfect record, where Voivod are able to show for the first time how clear and crystalline can their guitars and vocals sound. However, that didn't help in making it such a success as "Nothingface" or even "Killing Technology", the band's undisputed pièces de resistance.

Overall, and like any album that Voivod released, "Angel Rat" was light years away from its time, although some contemporary aspects made it somewhat listenable and even radio friendly if compared to any other release prior to it. As it should be, only time could do justice for such a milestone, and it goes without saying that today the album is a reference to any avantgarde/progressive metal fan. It would not be exaggerated to state that, up until "Angel Rat", Voivod remind of David Bowie and his habit of jumping from musical style to musical style as time goes by, adapting and improving.

Personally, I find the album to be a monster, especially when it comes to the lack of fear in creating a work that can divide the audience, that can push boundaries out of predetermined compasses, that can go so unnoticed... but that, above anything else, is METAL, pure and simple.

Poor Angel Rat. Few seem to love you as I have, for you arrived at a time when people were simply not equipped to appreciate the many values you wore like a billowing gown upon your many-hued flesh.

On the heels of such masterpieces as Dimension Hatröss and the ensuing Nothingface, albums so far ahead of the metal mindset in their time that they are still widely misconstrued and underrated, it would have been a tall task for Canadians Voivod to match themselves effectively with another full blown, heady concept record, and so they didn't. They penned a number of smooth, melodic curiosities, imbued them with the dark, futurist melancholy of Nothingface, and set out to create what was their most accessible album to date, perhaps STILL the most accessible (though the eponymous 2003 album comes mighty close). Lacking the grand, experimental unification of its predecessor, which if we're being honest, had just about abandoned the band's thrash roots entirely, Angel Rat was an attempt at creating a 'metal lite' style that still honored the Canadians' psychedelic, progressive influences like Pink Floyd and Rush, and it's no surprise to me that it was an inspired, if understated success.

Though I had quickly become used to the idea that Voivod was going to be one of those bands who would put out effort after effort of evolving, reliable fascination, I didn't warm to Angel Rat quite as quickly as my brain melted to the two previous albums. The strange collage of images relating to individual songs seemed a bit unusual, as did the classic scrawl of the band name and title font. Yet it still kept that purplish background hue, and I'd be shocked if this turned out NOT to be Away's favorite color. Once I listened, I found that the songs were deceptively simple, quite airy, and focused more on simple melodic hooks. Piggy's dissonant development was subdued throughout, and the band's aggression did not return to its previous heights from the mid 80s. The vocal lines seemed aimed at a broader audience, and Snake was relying less on the punkish pitch he was built on. Also, while Nothingface had turned out a mellower album than its own predecessors, there was still something cryptic about it, unfriendly to the mainstream; where, in a kinder world, Angel Rat could have easily gotten some airplay on rock radio for a "Panorama" or "Clouds in My House".

But don't let this subdued, simplification deceive you into thinking that these tunes aren't poignant and haunting, because frankly they're among the most hypnotic the Canadians have written. Take "The Prow", a fetching piece of maritime mermaid-punk with incredibly catchy verse lines and chorus, and then this trippy bridge with organs, mellow vocals and scintillating guitar harmonies that wouldn't have been out of place on the 1989 album. "Clouds in My House" is what might happen if the Rolling Stones overdosed on space dust and David Bowie covers, while "Twin Dummy" is simultaneously happy and creepy, bass lines flowing like melodious syrup while the titular homunculus makes a new 'friend'. More powerful than any of these, the machine-like, pseudo-industrial rock of "Golem" tells us the sad tale of an artificial intelligence becoming self aware despite its monotonous, predictable existence. I'll take that over any sentimental Star Trek: The Next Generation episode in which Data discovers and contends with another facet of his humanity.

Angel Rat doesn't sound like it was on quite as mighty a budget as Nothingface, but whether it was simply rushed, or underfunded, I couldn't tell you. Regardless, the music is so well structured and memorable that it achieves its own sense of timelessness. The guitars, while not as driving and central as on earlier works, are so light and beautifully scripted to the vocals and drums that I can envision seraph wings sprouting from Denis D'Amour's back. The bass is still slightly distorted, not as often brought to the fore as it was in 1989, but still perhaps the central instrument. Drums are much easier on the ears this time out, and Away could have probably made himself a snack while performing most of these with a single hand and foot, but then the songs don't call for much more energy. As a whole, Angel Rat steers between uptempo, jubilant swathes of melody and steadier, slower pieces that build a more psychedelic resonance, but it's got a remarkably deep track list, of which only the mellow "Freedoom" and "Nuage Fractal" come up a fraction short (and both are still pretty good...)

People that had long felt alienated from Voivod through their 80s progression might have heard this and exclaimed 'what the fuck?' loudly, but I can't say that Angel Rat is ultimately that much of a surprise. It's a subtler record than Nothingface. It doesn't hit you over the head with its outlandish, convulsions of being 'Other', but it just slowly settles onto your spirit like a drugged haze. It may have breached the band's 'perfect streak' in terms of my own reaction, but it's still an amazing album and was a highlight for me in 1991, a year in which I had an adverse reaction to many of the latest records from many of the extreme metal titans (Sepultura, Morbid Angel, Death, etc). It's not heavy in the slightest, at least not in terms of the riffing or aggression, but it's unique, compelling, and very often beautiful...

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

After achieving the pinnacle of their musical objective with the complex futurism of Nothingface, Voivod produce the most accessible work of their career with Angel Rat, essentially a melodic rock album whose songs have more in common with alternative rock than progressive rock or speed metal.

“the time is coming
the world is dying
I'm more than worried”

These are directly engaging songs defined by catchy pop-style melodic choruses, with noticeable elements of post-punk, bearing only a distant resemblance to previous albums. Relaxed and even lighthearted at times, the songs range from simple up-tempo melodic rock to dreamy and cosmic-rock ballads, very well-written and appealing for their elegant expression of conceptual substance and the band’s characteristic quirky charm.

Snake’s distinct vocals are at their most melodic and expressively diverse, while Piggy’s dissonant riffs mostly take the shape of atmospheric rock riffs using eccentric chord shapes, along with classy rock-style solos, as a lurking bass guitar provides a strange creeping pulse in rhythmic constructions that are far more conventional than before.

“tomorrow we will know
something about the code
salvation's on its way
in the light of today
cloud of all destiny
ghost of reality
nobody can detect
the butterfly effect”

A spacey, sometimes gloomy, aura permeates throughout, and the band’s odd tendencies remain, but this has all the feelings of a transitional work. Lyrics depart from the Voivod saga for more direct, easily relatable, yet cleverly constructed observations of social isolation, redundant negativity of media, and destructive environmental alterations, treated with the insight and imagination that is identifiable with the band, only simplified in harmony with the more approachable music, which, despite its apparent appeal to mainstream conventions, upholds the band’s trademark consistency and conceptual unity, and for that proves deceptively enduring.

Although I'm entering the fanhood of Voivod a little later than most of the band's dedicated apostles, I've been listening to the albums from this band's illustrious career, and piecing together a timeline of their stylistic changes. The band started out with a clearly defined root in thrashy speed metal, but around the middle of their career, Voivod was morphing their sound with every album. 1989's 'Nothingface' was one such album that showed Voivod doing something new, and as the peak of their metal output, it was a jaw-dropping display of progressive thrash metal. Now, after such an exciting style that the band had finally found for themselves, a fan of the band at the time would probably have thought that Voivod would continue to pursue that sound for themselves, releasing album after album of similar sounding 'Nothingface' successors. Even though it came out twenty years ago, the band's sixth album 'Angel Rat' still comes as a big surprise to me. Instead of sticking with this golden style that they had innovated with 'Nothingface', they instead move on again in search of new ways to approach their music Toning down their metal grit in favour for a more mellow take on Voivod's distinct sound.

I would restrain myself from calling this a metal album; while Voivod was most certainly a metal band in earlier albums, there is not nearly the same bite here that they used to have. The songs are given mostly conventional structures, and if I was going to give any label to this music, it would have to be 'spacey hard rock'. While hearing 'Angel Rat' described like this would have me think that they were dumbing down their sound in the commericial vein that a few other thrash bands did in the early '90s, but Voivod would maintain their progressive edge in the music, despite things being a little less sporadic in the music itself. The songs here still have the sci-fi vibe of earlier Voivod material, and these songs feel more influenced by Voivod's prog influences than the metal. Piggy's riffs are still quirky, but the vanguard experimentation has been toned down. This is a very band-based effort that focuses on good songwriting. It lacks the shock and jaw-dropping nature of 'Nothingface', but the music is good. The band's performance is tight, and this may be Denis Belanger's greatest vocal performance in Voivod's history.

Despite the concise nature of the songwriting, I do find this to be Voivod's biggest grower album, and it's precisely for the fact that it is so mellow, when compared to the rest. There's no 'in your face' attitude or proggy vibe here, just songs, and for a band who would have me constantly guessing at what new exciting things would be coming the listener's way, that can be a big adjustment. Although I didn't find myself liking it all too much at the beginning, 'Angel Rat' is a greatly written album that fits snugly into the middle of Voivod's golden years.

They are not from this world any more! Voivod has transcended the waves of space and time and floats somewhere high above an ordinary human state of mind. I may warn you, because this album has nothing to do with the band's early thrash metal albums or the later extreme post industrial metal. This isn't even metal at all, it is pure and perfect progressive rock, somewhere between King Crimson's "In the court of the crimson king", Rush's "Moving pictures", Genesis' "Wind and wuthering", Pink Floyd's "Darkside of the moon" and the band's previous "Nothingface", just to give you an idea.

When I first bought and listened to the album, I thought that somebody had put the wrong CD in the slipcase. This doesn't sound like anything you have heard from Voivod before and later on. Even today, when the band still plays "Panorama" or "The prow" live on stage, it sounds much heavier and down to earth than on this album and doesn't have the same feeling at all. Voivod truly created something that they were never able to do again, they wrote this song in a very special mood. This album is softly floating and I wouldn't be surprised to know that those guys were completely on acid while they composed this album. Singer Snake completely flies away in the video clip for "Clouds in my house", high above the earth, sorrounded by starnge white paper floating around him like snow. This image represents perfectly the mood of this album.

Snake sounds softer and more emotional than ever before, the drumming is relaxed but still tight in the same way, the bass guitar creates really eerie or spacey vibes and the melodic guitar produces sounds that you have never heard before. Voivod even integrate some new instruments like the harmonica part on "The outcast", but those surprising elements are decently used and fit perfectly to the songs. Voivod do not abuse those new elements and that's why there are many little surprises to discover on this album.

It is difficult to mention highlights on this album which works as a whole masterpiece, but half of the songs of this album also work out of the conceptual basis and give me regular chills and goosebumps.

"Panorama" reminds somehow of the syle of the previous album and is the heaviest song on the album and very well chosen as a tight opener.

"Clouds in my house" is a perfect title as this song makes you dream and fly away and has brilliantly tender and dreamy finale.

During "The prow" you hear ocean waves and the song has a mystic atmosphere that surrounds it in a very eerie way and you can't get this song out of your head once you have listened to it.

The title song "Angel rat" is the most spacey song on the album, has a really eerie atmosphere and feels like a bizarre dream with its floating guitars, multiple dreamy choirs and voices and almost electronical or decent new or dark wave parts.

"The outcast" surprises with many interesting changes of style and the harmonica part in the beginning.

"Freedoom" begins as a very tender hippy ballad and is the most relaxed song Voivod have ever written.

I just mentioned six songs out of twelve which are six unique masterpieces to me. The other ones are almost as strong and the whole twelve songs form something really unique and perfect. Thrash or heavy metal fans may not get a good approach to this album which has been largely discussed, criticized and is until today very controversial. If you are a fan of progressive rock, you will adore this album though and maybe see it as the rebirth of a whole genre, it is the greatest progressive rock album since "Wind and wuthering" almost fifteen years before this one.

Every song creates a really bizarre, tender, spacy, floating, mysterious atmosphere and makes you dream and chill. This album is the most underrated album I know, it is one of my favourite albums of all time and really close to perfection!

Since the release of 'Killing Technology', Voivod have worn their Die Kreuzen influence very conspicuously on their sleeves -- namely, within the angular diminished chord riffing and bizarre handle on narrative -- but with 'Angel Rat' the influence swallowed the band entirely, and they came to follow the same alternative rock melodrama that the once-vital Die Kreuzen were hopelessly degenerating into. ('Century Days', in particular, appears to be the exact prototype for this album. A fabulously gay song about cloud formations? Check. A carnival song about a fucked-up and possibly paedophilic clown? Check. And the list goes on!) Of course, Voivod put their own progressive spin on the formula, incorporating choice bits of King Crimson, Yes, and especially Rush circa 'Moving Pictures', but it's all condensed into radio-length candy rock form-- certainly a jarring transition after the scientifically engineered, sleek-as-chrome brilliance of 'Nothingface'!

To make it explicit: this is not at all a Metal album. Save for a few headbanger riffs thrown around for good measure, this is pop-prog that seems to wallow in its own nostalgia more than anything else. The "post-apocalyptic space vampire" concept that was so central to Voivod's '80s speed metal discography is also scrapped completely, never to be revisited until 'Phobos', released five years later. Instead, lyrics are fashioned around some sort of interdimensional fairy tale that was no doubt hatched after a few odd electric acid kool aid tests. (For more evidence, just watch the video for "Clouds In My House" with the guy's face that pops out of the bass drums every time Away hits the kick-- goddamn, that's creepy!)

However, 'Angel Rat' doesn't receive a total failing grade because -- if you have even the slightest soft-spot for prog -- the attractiveness of its craft is really difficult to resist. Like an old-fashioned boxful of chocolates, this album tempts you with brightly wrapped, sweet and tasty riffage that you'll scarf down by the handful even though you know it will make you fat, lethargic, and diabetic. Denis "Piggy" D'Amour -- who was climbing into his thirties and had probably grown weary of composing complex and daring starscapes -- had cast aside purposeful songwriting and embraced the role of a proper guitar hero in the lineage of Lifeson/Gilmour/Page/et al., focusing on whipping out the perfect solos with all the classic embellishments. And as always, he just smokes the fretboard like a ten dollar blunt. But to what end? The songs sound "nice" -- after all, the album received state-of-the-art production courtesy of Rush technician Terry Brown (though you could blame him for totally neutering Blacky's bass tone) -- but their ultimate effect is that of a carousel ride: you'll climb on that dinky unicorn and go for a spin, and for a glorious fleeting moment you're a kid again without a care in the whole wide world. But then when it ends, you've gone nowhere and you're right back where you started. Well, how's that for a total waste of time?

So, yes, there's a few good reasons why 'Angel Rat' has gone down in the books as "The Voivod Sell-out Album", although for the most part it failed to actually "sell" despite the era's overwhelming demand for alternative crap. For your own sake, just stick to the '80s catalogue, or jump on over to the surprisingly vicious, surprisingly astute Eric Forrest-fronted 'Negatron' for an all too rare example of quality '90s speed metal.

Voivod have always seemed to have a screw loose when it comes to songwriting ((that's not meant as an insult, I'm talking about how the band tend to intentionally inject some avant garde weirdness into their music) and that's definately clear with this recording. On this one, Voivod drop the punkish, aggressive sci-fi speed/thrash in favour of a more alternative sound, taking a lot of influence from commercial punk and new-wave. Considering this was 1991, this was probably an influence on other bands intrigued by metal's extreme, over-the-top tendencies but also by mainstream music's accesibility, along with Faith No More and Metallica's Black Album.

Well, there is still some old metallic Voivod in here, the opening riff sounding much more Motorhead than Radiohead. However, the majority of this does indeed contain some alternative riffs and leanings. Not to say that it's a bad album, just that it isn't the skull-throttling insanity of War & Pain and Killing Technology. The usual Voivod weirdness is still present too, in the sometimes disharmonic riffs and off-sounding note arrangements, and of course Snake's unique vocal approach for which he is well known. But of course, if you're not much of a fan of new wave and alternative (as i'm not) this can bring the album down in parts, I mean Twin Dummy could easily be a Beach Boys cover.

Highlights? Panorama is a good opening track and Clouds In My House is quite a nice, laid-back dirge with it's dreamlike riff in the chorus. Then The Prow, which is the catchiest and certainly the most enjoyable. There aren't really any bad tracks or any sections that really grate at me, it's just that it doesn't pull any Tribal Convictions or Psychic Vacuum out to crush my skull and force me to surrender to the gods of thrash. Angel Rat is quite a nice ballad, with some enjoyable leadwork too. I also like how the last track is titled None Of The Above, even if the song itself is fairly average.

Oh yeah, and ya gotta love that cover art! Seriously, that is fucking boss, one of the best covers of the 90s.

If you don’t like this album, you’re probably not that big of a Voivod fan. It’s really that simple. And that’s not to sound condescending; it’s just the way it is. Voivod were all about change, progression, and experimentation. And they were surprisingly good at everything they attempted. None of their migrations sounded forced or out of place.

We have their first two albums, which were mostly-straightforward thrashy garage metal. On Killing Technology and Dimension Hatross, they began exploring a “future metal” that was more clinical, progressive, and mathematical, while still retaining much of their thrashy aggression. Nothingface refined Dimension Hatross’ ideas to a nearly sterile level, often considered their “perfect” or ultimate album.

Enter Angel Rat. Where could they go after Nothingface? They most certainly couldn’t keep belaboring the Hatross/Nothingface style…they had already mastered that. Well, we found out on the previous album that psychedelic rock was an obvious influence to them (“Astronomy Domine”), even if it had never been extremely apparent in their own songs. Angel Rat is simply the embodiment of that influence, but with their own unique and inimitable twists.

The funny thing is, I’m not even a fan of psychedelic rock/metal. It’s often so lost in its own spacey world that if you’re not high, it’s hard to enjoy. Further, I’m not unable to realize when a band has made a mistake. Case in point, I do not like the two Eric Forrest albums at all, even though I recognize what they were exploring (but perhaps I’d have enjoyed them somewhat if had Snake been on vocals?).

The thing that makes Angel Rat so interesting is that they make psychedelia tasty for your brain…without the need for smoking up. Take “Golem” for example…the lyrics alone are wonderful, even without the music. Sad, sci-fi, BladeRunner-ish sentient apparatus musings. And how can one NOT like “The Prow”, a unique and bittersweet ode to the fate of a ship’s prow carving? Can’t you admit to feeling a little creepy after hearing “Twin Dummy”?

This, and The Outer Limits to a lesser extent, was a foray into a more mellow, moody, contemplative Voivod. And I do have to be in the right frame of mind to fully enjoy it. But even so, I must admit I somehow loved this album when it first came out. And I still love it today. Others are finally starting to realize just how good Angel Rat actually was (“ahead of its time” is perhaps not the right phrase, as there was nothing new about the genre that was explored, but “ahead of its audience” might be accurate).

The main hurdle for this album’s success was in how much it took their fans by surprise after Nothingface. Whereas the latter challenged you, Angel Rat asked you to sit back and relax. So when you’re ready to do exactly that, you’re ready for this album.

I can see why Voivod fans would hate this album. If you go from angry thrash to something radically different, there's no guarantee that those who were with you for the angry thrash will be with you to whatever your new direction is. I however, am not a fan of older Voivod, but I do like the sound of this album.

The style of this album is somewhat hard to pinpoint, it's on the borderline of metal and non-metal and I guess the band it most closely reminds me of is Deep Purple in the 70s. Overall, it's a little more progressive and psychadellic than Deep Purple was as a whole and there's less noodling than if Ritchie Blackmore was involved, but they could easily cover Pictures of Home or Hush on this album and it would not sound the least bit out of place.
I mentioned that there's some psychadellia on here as well. Not heavy psychadellia just some moments remicient of the late 60s movement of psychadellia (but heavier of course).

Snake's vocals leave a little something to be desired, they're a bit nasaly and unrefined for the style of singing he's going for, but dispite that, he manages to create some catchy vocal melodies.

The bass lines are great as well. The Prow in particular sticks out as an example of some of the fine bass lines of the album. The same goes for the drumming (althogh to be honest with you, analyzing drumming is my weak point).

The guitar riffs are a bit weak, but if you're expecting something cookie cutter thrash metal, you will be disappointed. I do think they fit the sound that Voivod was aiming for here.

The first 2/3 of the album are stronger than the last 1/3 and it starts to trail off a little. This brings the album down some, but not much.

All in all, I'd reccomend this album if you're looking for something different, and are a classic metal fan who also enjoys some psychadellic stuff.