VOIVOD: 'Target Earth' Cover Artwork Unveiled

Canadian metal innovators VOIVOD will release their new album, "Target Earth", on January 22, 2013 (one day earlier internationally) via VOIVOD's own company, Iron Gang Factory, and Century Media. The CD was recorded in January at Pierre Rémillard's (OBLIVEON, CRYPTOPSY, KRISIUN, MISERY INDEX) Wild Studio in a small town called St-Zénon in Quebec, Canada. The follow-up to 2009's "Infini" will contain the band's first music to be written with new guitarist Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (MARTYR) following the passing of original axeman Denis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005.

The "Target Earth" cover artwork can be seen below.

According to a posting on the page, fans can "expect something in the vein of 'Nothingface' with some elements from the other albums. It will be a classic VOIVOD album."

Regarding what the new VOIVOD songs sound like, Mongrain said in an interview, "As a VOIVOD fan since I am 12 years old and early rise of VOIVOD in late '80s and everything, I think… I'm in conflict of interest right now. [laughs] I like the old stuff as much as the new stuff, so I think it's a blend of everything. It's really a team work and Blacky [Jean-Yves Thériault] is back on the 'blower bass' — he's got the original sound — and we're having a blast jamming. I think it's working pretty good."

On the topic of the lyrical themes covered in the new VOIVOD tracks, singer Denis "Snake" Bélanger said, "The song we played [on the early 2012 European tour] ['Kaleidos'] is about conspiracy involving drugs and the FBI… [Laughs] It's hard to describe because we're kind of early in the process. There's another song called 'Target Earth', which is more like a spacy, conspiracy, controlling the information around the world. The main thing is the 'war' of information. You know, somebody Osama Bin Laden is dead, someone [else] says he's not… It gets to a point where everybody has his own story and nobody is sure what the truth is. There's people above everything controlling the information."

In an interview with Exclaim.ca, Away stated about VOIVOD's forthcoming studio album, "It's more in the progressive metal vein, so it's reminiscent of the 'Dimension Hatröss' era."

VOIVOD's new single, "Mechanical Mind", was released on October 9 (one day earlier internationally) as a digital single and a limited-edition seven-inch single-sided vinyl with a skull etching by VOIVOD drummer Michel "Away" Langevin on the B-side.

VOIVOD debuted the "Target Earth" title track during their April 12 concert at the Roadburn festival at the 013 venue in Tilburg, Holland.

VOIVOD 2012 is:

Denis "Snake" Bélanger - Vocals
Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain - Guitar
Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault - Bass
Michel "Away" Langevin - Drums

"Mechanical Mind" (new song) studio version (audio stream):

"Kluskap O'Kom" (new song) performance:

"Target Earth" (new song) performance:

"Kaleidos" (new song) performance: