Voivod drops another new song ‘Paranormalium’

Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD releases their new studio album, “Synchronous anarchy”, on February 11 via Century Media Records. The follow-up to the 2018s “The Wake” was produced by Francis Perron on RadicArt Studio and features cover artwork created by VOIVOD drummer Michel “Away” Langevin.

The official text video for the second single from “Synchronous anarchy”, a song called “Paranormalium”, was created by Cloud music typography and can be seen below.

VOIVOD guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain say: “‘Paranormalium’ opens with the very last guitar melody you listen to ‘The Wake’last song ‘Sonic Mycelium’, in the fading of the string quartet. We wanted both entities or dimensions to be connected through music, as two parallel worlds can be connected through distorted space-time, black holes, vibrations, spirituality, or something else.

“‘Paranormalium’ is the name Denis ‘Snake’ Bélanger came up while writing the text, and tried to gather all these concepts into an imaginary particle called ‘Paranormalium’. Depending on your individual perception or any influential inner or outer event, make themselves see or not see, be a part of or not be a part of, someone else’s reality OR even get stuck between many different dimensions as it all is connected in some ways through ‘Paranormalium’.

“It’s one of the most complex, twisted and heavy songs on the album with many different landscapes. The melody comes back many times over the course of the song in different forms, as the reality may consist of the same material assuming different aspects. I in the end, do we really live in the reality we think we are in ??? “

“Synchronous anarchy” track list:

01. Paranormalium

02. Synchronous anarchy

03. Planet Eaters

04. Mind Clock

05. Sleeves off

06. Holographic thinking

07. The world today

08. Quest For Nothing

09. Memory error

Langevin comments: “We are eager to present our latest work, a real collaboration. The new album represents countless hours of writing, demo, recording, mix and so on. The band and Francis Perron on RadicArt Studio did their best to make it happen under unusual circumstances, which made us call it Synchroarchy. We feel that the sound and music are 100% VOIVOD, and we hope everyone will enjoy it as much as we had fun making it. We certainly can not wait to play it live. “

When the official music video to “Planet Eaters” was first released last month, Langevin said: “On April 21, 2021, an animated video for the song ‘Nothingface’ appeared on the net. The video is made by Pierre Menetrier on a Amiga computer in 1991, which I thought was more than fat. The spectacular images and visual effects were just perfect for one VOIVOD song. After completing the recording and mixing of Synchroarchy album, we all agreed ‘Planet Eaters’ as the first single / video. We thought the song had a vintage ‘Nothingface’/‘Hatröss’ vibe so I contacted immediately Pierre and asked him if he could make a video for the song. Once again, the result is just amazing. You just can not get more voivodian than that! “

Eight months ago, Mongrain told The Metal Voice that he and his bandmates “were still in the writing process” to follow up on 2018’s “The Wake”. He said: “We are still sharing files and trying to catch up and put more time into it. I think the situation will get better and maybe we will have a chance to meet more often and jam together; it’s there, magic happens, usually. But we’ve also learned to work in this context. And that’s cool because I’ve received a lot of numbers from Gone [drummer Michel Langevin], which programs drums in Logic with his computer and it sounded exactly like Goneplayer. I was super impressed, because sometimes when using a computer, it sounds a bit square. But everything was perfect. So it’s really fun to do. It’s another way. So it will bring other ideas, I think, if we welcome it in a creative way. “

In terms of the musical direction of the new VOIVOD material, Mongrain said: “[It’s] hard to say at the moment, but personally I feel like it [injecting] a little more thrashy [elements and] some dirt, so to speak, to the sound. Complexity has always been a part of my influence on songwriting – I do not know what the problem is with me, but it is always there, so I do not worry about that side. But maybe [make it] a little less polished and more rock and roll, I think. “

VOIVOD released a new live album, “Lost Machine – Live”, in November 2020 via Century Media Records. The disc was recorded in Québec City during the worldwide touring cycle for “The Wake”.

In the summer of 2020, VOIVOD released a new three-track 12-inch vinyl and digital EP titled “The end of sleep” via Century Media Records. The EP is centered around a special “Metal Section” version of the title track (off VOIVOD‘s latest album, “The Wake”) with added trumpets, saxophone and trombones. The additional songs on this release are exclusive live versions of “The End Of Dormancy (Metal Section)” and the group’s classic “The unknown by”, recorded at Montreal Jazz Fest 2019.

“The end of sleep” EP came with artwork of Langevin and available on 180-frame 12-inch vinyl.