VOIVOD

For most of the last 40 years, VOIVOD have been the progressive metal gift that keeps on giving. Perpetually ahead of the game, they have weathered every obstacle and pitfall imaginable to arrive at this point, and it seems only fitting that this most adventurous and free-thinking band should celebrate their ongoing existence by fulfilling one of their longstanding dreams. "Symphonique" was recorded on June 4th, 2025, at the Grand Theatre in Quebec City with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra accompanying the Canadians through a 12-song set of seminal classics. According to legendary drummer Michel "Away" Langevin, this is "the closest we've ever come to sounding like a dystopian sci-fi movie soundtrack". And you can see his point. While many bands have collaborated with orchestras over the years, very few of them have had material that genuinely lends itself to the concept. For VOIVOD, thinking big and exploring metal's outer limits has been an essential part of the process for a long time. "Symphonique" is the live album that these inspirational songs deserve.

Devoted fans will get a rush of excitement when they see the track listing. Not quite a career retrospective, but a shrewd summary of the best music VOIVOD have made since their 1982 formation, "Symphonique" focuses on their strongest, most influential albums. With multiple tracks from benchmark records "Dimension Hatröss" and "Nothingface" and choice cuts from scabrous debut "War and Pain", the groundbreaking "Killing Technology", and one track each from the Canadians most recent studio triumphs, "The Wake" and "Synchro Anarchy", this is a righteous celebration of the most prog-friendly parts of the VOIVOD catalogue, and the perfect way to present these songs in a new and interesting way.

It starts with "Experiment": the game-changing opening track from "Dimension Hatröss", here transformed into an opulent and chaotic orchestral blowout, with vocalist Snake adrift on a boiling sea of angular riffs, cacophonous strings and wayward woodwind and brass. The sound gets the balance between raw reality and cinematic grandeur just right, with every embellishment blended seamlessly into the overall onslaught. Orchestral VOIVOD is, to put it mildly, ridiculously exciting.

Highlights are many and varied. "Holographic Thinking" (from "Synchro Anarchy") is transformed into a bewildering act of freewheeling maximalism, "The Unknown Knows" becomes a thrilling mixture of gangster noir chaos and high velocity, wonky thrash, and "Forgotten In Space" genuinely sounds like it should be soundtracking some mind-expanding, dystopian sci-fi movie. Even "Nuclear War", a blistering blackened epic from VOIVOD's earliest days, is reborn here, as the Quebec Symphony Orchestra somehow manage to inject the band's viscerally atonal attack with dense, diverting colors. And, of course, the whole joyous exercise concludes with a magnificent version of PINK FLOYD's "Astronomy Domine": an inspired cover in its original form, and even more extraordinary in this context.

Live albums are often throwaway affairs. Live albums with an orchestra in tow are often overblown acts of shameless indulgence. "Symphonique" is neither of these things. Instead, this is VOIVOD's unique brilliance rendered in three eye-scorching dimensions and performed with incredible vigor and endless, subversive spirit. For a jolting dose of next-level prog metal genius, with strings attached, look no further.