VOIVOD’S NEW LIVE ALBUM IS ICY, HOT

Written into the leftfield metal legend is the Faith No More/Soundgarden/Voivod tour of 1989-90. The tits-rad US trek captured three daring bands at different career points: FNM had gone supernova with “Epic” and then-new single “Falling To Pieces”; Cornell and crew’s Louder Than Love was underground hot and schoolyard cool for the Bruce Dickinson-endorsed “Big Dumb Sex”; Voivod stood at their creative apex with the inimitable Nothingface.

That Spring, a family friend turned up a cassette bootleg of one stop of the tour — topped by Voivod — and that tape was fucking diamond-covered gold to me and my buds. After one listen, we could tell that support bands had sought to blast quirky headliner off the stage; headliner had been left no choice but to slam lest the already rocked crowd be lost. Whatever the reason, the jams were so boner that my budding sexuality was forever corrupted; forget chasing tween chicks, I wanted to fuck the tape, its recorder, the bands, the stage, the gear, the ticket stubs, and everybody at those shows. Srs.

Here in 2011, Soundgarden’s reunion is wack (face it) and Faith No More’s might be even more cynical (no new music). So the moral victory belongs to Voivod; they suffered similar travails — plus commercial inviability and the death of their creative center, Denis “Piggy” D’Amour — but have returned to a state of asskick, as evidenced by their forthcoming live record Warriors Of Ice. It was recorded in their hometown of Montreal on a big day in 2009 (their DVD release party), and the live set — two Inifini jams plus 13 songs from Angel Rat and earlier — is so rad that again my boner is confused. Yeah, that’s a compliment.

-ADF

Voivod’s awesome Warriors Of Ice live record is out June 21 on Sonic Unyon Metal.