Voivod Fuses Cold Drone With Fire and Speed

Even though it drew the usual group of slam-dancing longhairs and skinheads to Fender’s on Saturday night, Voivod can’t strictly be classified as a thrash metal band. Instead of limiting themselves to power riffs and millisecond rhythms, the Montreal-based quartet takes the cold aural drone of industrial noise and injects the hard-hitting fire and speed of the heaviest metal.

Although much of the lyric imagery of Voivod’s sci-fi motif was lost to the acoustics of the Long Beach hall, charismatic vocalist Snake created an otherworldly mood with his mime-like contortions and theatrical facial expressions. Guitarist Piggy’s speed-demon axmanship and moody effects, along with a wham-bam! rhythm section, added to the intensely satisfying show. Much of the material was from Voivod’s latest LP, “Dimension Hatross,” one of the better metal records to come out this year.

Compared to Voivod, openers Forbidden and Violence came off as your average thrash bands. Both are likable and high on energy, but they limit themselves to standard slam fare.