AWAY: VOIVOD Has Jumped Into The 'Classic Thrash Metal' Category

On May 23, Austria's Stormbringer webzine conducted an interview with drummer Michel "Away" Langevin of Canadian metal innovators VOIVOD at the Rock Hard Festival in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. You can now watch the chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On VOIVOD's plans to release a new studio album:

"We're just out of the recording studio, because we want to release another seven-inch soon. And the plan is to release a bunch of them this year. Next year we wanna write a batch of songs and then compile everything into an LP."

On VOIVOD's recent split single with AT THE GATES:

"It was a suggestion from Century Media, because they are labelmates. And we're hoping to do the next one with NAPALM DEATH, which are really good friends. We just went all across North America with [NAPALM DEATH]; it was amazing."

On VOIVOD's longevity:

"There were a couple of times where VOIVOD didn't exist, like when we had the accident in '98 and when we split up the band in 2001, and when Piggy [guitar] passed away [in 2005], of course, and so on. And every time we're wondering if we lost momentum, and then we get back together and our friends show up. I think right now VOIVOD has jumped into the 'classic thrash metal' category. We will always be invited at festivals, and we will always do club tours. So we can rely on that. We really wanna do that as long as we can."

On VOIVOD's renewed energy after picking up guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain in 2008:

"It was a struggle to finish what we had started in 2004, 'Katorz' [2006] and 'Infini' [2009], because Piggy was not there anymore, and it was very strange to be in the studio without him and to finish these albums. So it was a bit of a relief… I felt like the mission was accomplished, and I think that Jason [Newsted, former METALLICA and VOIVOD bassist] and Snake [vocals] felt the same. The three albums that we wrote are released and out there, and after that, it was time to move forward. But it took me, like, three years away from VOIVOD to be able to really go back. Because between 2005 and 2008, Snake and I, we were not too sure what to do. And, of course, doing new material from scratch was the experience we are looking for when we write music. Now it's a new lineup and we're writing new material again."

On new VOIVOD bassist Dominic "Rocky" Laroche, who joined the band in 2014 following the departure of Jean-Yves Thériault (a.k.a. Blacky):

"Rocky is great. Everybody like him and he's just like part of the gang. It's wonderful. Like Chewy, Rocky is a VOIVOD fan from when he was really young, and it's a dream come true for him."