In now already fourty years of history (not going to touch on all its ups and downs here again), some of the stable constants in the career of French-Canadian sci-fi/thrash/prog/punk metal legends Voivod have always been that they were absolutely killing it on stage, as well as the high quality and originality of their studio output. Even in the very beginning, when they couldn't even perform and produce their work as good as they wanted, they were at least brütal as fuck, yet at the same time time already more innovative than most of their peers.
During the last dozen years with first Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain succeeding at the impossible job of filling in for the late Denis "Piggy" D'Amour and later Dominic Laroche aka Rocky completing a new songwriting duo alongside original members Denis "Snake" Bélanger (vocals and lyrics) and Michel "Away" Langevin (drums, artwork and concept), which had been growing up as huge fans of the band they are now playing in themselves, Voivod has proven multiple times that there's just no other metal band of their generation out there, whose recent activities are even half as relevant.
Yes, some are bigger, way bigger. Some are also great live and put out decent albums. But come on: Which 80's band still puts out albums with that amount of new material the fans actually want to hear live with the same enthusiasm like the established classics? - Yeah, thought so.
And even though we should be used to Voivod being at the top of their game for years now, even after the exceptional predecessor "The Wake" - they still managed to blow my mind once again.
Even though arguably every good music album feels like it has a concept, and Voivod in particular have always been releasing very holistic works, "The Wake" clearly took the band to a new epic scale and cinematic feel of concept album composition, with the whole grand finale track, strings and all. And not to diminish the crucial part of everyone else, it was for a great part very much Chewy's vision, his magnus opus.
"Synchro Anarchy" feels a little more loose in the sense that it's rather a collection of songs than a complete narrative. Due to obvious pandemic reasons it was the first Voivod album not written together in one room, but remotely, even with programmed drums on the demos.
One effect of that seems to be that everyone has worked extra hard on every single detail, before finally getting together for the actual studio recording. Even when Voivod are playing relatively straight-forward - and there is a lot of catchy and also very melodic stuff happening, akin to both the Jasonic phase in the early 2000s as well as the classics "Angel Rat" and "The Outer Limits" from a decade earlier - there's always a lot of very intricate and wild stuff going on.
Coming out of the two fantastic Hypercube Sessions, live stream events, where they played both "Nothingface" and "Dimension Hatröss" in full, the band keeps going back to the sounds, structures and progressive spirit of these albums as well as the unpredictable chaotic element of their first decade, but don't shy away from giving it new spins.
As always since "Target Earth" in 2013 this is especially obvious in the guitar solos. There are not many of those, because there's already so much going on in Dan's regular playing that it simply isn't necessary to constantly spice it up with shredded leads. But when he decides to do a solo, it always seems to be in a completely different style, it's always a freaking amazing display of what he's capable of beyond the framework of "just" continuing Piggys legacy. And on top of that it's also fully in service of the song itself.
Everyone's arrangements and performances on this album are just that kind of good that immediately puts a big fat smile into your face. And it stays there until the very end.
Snake's voice ages like fine wine. He just knows the unique qualities of his style so good and makes all the right and cool decisions. And his lyrics - damn! Through the lens of science fiction his observations about our perception of the world and its manipulation are just so damn on point. And even within environmental and social dystopia, he still remains a humanist. Just look out for the life-affirming turn in "Quest For Nothing" and you'll know what I mean. It's beautiful.
Away's drumming... we're so used to him being one of the greatest that there seems to be no serious need to talk about it. But even the Voivod veteran never just does his thing, but still sound inspired and creative. His performance just kicks ass in every imaginable way.
If I had to chose one single hero of "Synchro Anarchy", it would have to be Rocky on bass though. Not only is he an absolute beast and his his style is the perfect encapsulation of everything not only Blacky, but also all other bassists after (and later before) him have brought to Voivod - no, we also have to talk about his sound!
Ever since the bass intro of the "Post Society" EP his bass sound - and the production of the band's studio work as a whole - has already been quite spectacular, but I'm sure that the aforementioned live streams have had a crucial role in making it even better. This distinct tone and snarl just is the shit.
The Hypercube Sessions presented their respective albums with a sonic clarity and power one could have only dreamed about. And soundwise this album is a direct continuation of those streams, both in terms of raw energy and clarity.
It's in the album title of course. The balance of all the elements and qualities which Voivod can bring to the table is just perfect on here. "Synchro Anarchy" moves confidently in the sweetest milky way between order and chaos.
The mediabook CD edition of the album comes with a live bonus disc called "Return To Morgöth" from a show in 2018. Yes, yet another Voivod live album! But then - why fucking not? Naturally a lot on the setlist is similar to the fantastic "The Lost Machine" recording, but it's also similarly good. And there are also some different tracks like the "The Unknown Knows", which was missing on the last one. Or instead of the traditional ending with "Astronomy Domine" and "Voivod" this show ended with "Korgüll The Exterminator".
So yes, you won't need these eleven extra tracks, but you will surely love it anyway!
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