BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Chicago X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Chicago BEGIN:VEVENT UID:2789@thecmf.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20160224T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20160224T190000 DTSTAMP:20160212T012224Z URL:https://thecmf.com/events/voivod-vektor-eight-bells/ SUMMARY:VOIVOD\, VEKTOR\, EIGHT BELLS\, PREDATOR DESCRIPTION:Reggies Rock Club\n7PM 17+ $22/$25\n\nEmpire Productions presen ts:\nVoivod\nVektor\nEight Bells\n\nConcert featuring Voivod moved from Th e Abbey Pub. All previously purchased tickets will be refunded. Must purch ase ticket from Reggies for admission to concert.\n\nhttp://www.reggiesliv e.com/show/voivod/\n\n\nVoivod\nvoivod.net\nfacebook.com/Voivod\n\nAnomaly . Seminal. Iconoclasts. A “band’s band”. These are the nebulous word s that sum up a group of artists now in their third decade of collaboratio n and creation. These terms are yokes that Voivod must bear. Yet there is a purity in this fate that will live forever.\nWhat were the odds in the f irst place? Four young men in Quebec\, addled by art\, high on hash\, fuel ed by Venom and Motorhead. Post-heavy metal\, pre-MTV. The 80s were upon t hem and the threat of nuclear war seemed almost inevitable. Why not live o ut the endtimes sipping absinthe\, writing music\, and donning leather and spikes?\nMichel Langevin conceived a universe\, a character\, an anti-her o\; The Voivod. Dressed in fanciful garb woven by Bram Stoker and Stanley Kubrick\, the Voivod was a vampire lord in a post-nuclear age. Immortal an d unstoppable. The ultimate goal of any artist. Michel chose to take on th e powers of his creation by breathing life into the Voivod’s universe. B y creating a musical vehicle for the Voivod’s saga. By starting a garage band.\nDenis D’amour provided the music. The young man nicknamed “Pig gy” composed a debut album of brutal power\, metallic ferocity\, mad jaz z-shifts\, and brash noise. He also began to develop an almost lunatic sty le with his chords\, solos\, and tones that combined the technicality of R obert Fripp with the lumbering heaviness of Tony Iommi.\nPiggy worked hard to develop “Away”\, “Blacky”\, and “Snake” into a formidable unit. And he succeeded. Local shows and early tape trading led to interest from labels as far away as Los Angeles. Brian Slagel used his independent label Metal Blade to discover and develop important underground artists l ike Metallica\, Slayer\, Celtic Frost\, …and Voivod. Compilation tracks led to contracts and a modest budget allowing for time in a Montreal 8-tra ck studio. The first Voivod album War and Pain was recorded and released u nto the world in the prophetic year of 1984.\nMore albums followed and tou rs too. Voivod began to find a worldwide fanbase of rabid metalheads who c ouldn’t get enough of the violent sound on War and Pain and it’s follo w-up Roooaaarrr. Away painted graphic images of future warriors and weapon ry to adorn the covers of these records that matched his lyrical concepts. Snake hideously sputtered these words\, shrieking over the “blower bass ” foundation laid by Blacky.\nA successful U.S. tour in 1986 with Celtic Frost led to greater interest\, and greater vistas. Combat/Noise records signed Voivod and sent them to Berlin to record with Kreator producer Harr is Johns. As the band aged and grew\, so did its abilities and ideas conti nue to develop exponentially. The third outing Killing Technology was a pa radigm shift beyond its predecessors that nearly no one expected. Now the Voivod character was a cyborg in outer space that had survived multiple nu clear wars and was prepared to take on the tyrrany of a totalitarian world . More sophisticated lyrics demanded more intricate music\, which the band was now competent to provide thanks to their many travels. But listeners were not spared an ounce of brutality. Sharper focus. More deadly riffs. A n evil sound commenced that to this day is as alien and effective as it wa s in 1987.\nMTV and the music industry at large could not ignore the thras h metal demographic any longer. Too many records were being sold and too m uch money was going directly into the underground scene that could be turn ed into larger corporate dollars. Even independent\, progressive bands wer e encouraged to streamline their look and sound. Whether you want to call it “selling out” or just refer to it as “general improvements”\, i t was a fact of life for any band on the cusp of quitting their day jobs t o make music for a living.\nAlbum four – Dimension Hatross arrived with the best sound production of any ‘Vod album to date\, and a surprisingly tuneful performance by Snake. Add these interstellar harmonies to the bar rage of vintage guitar sounds\, unrelenting double-kick drum\, and a conce pt that took the Voivod to a microgalaxy of his own creation\, and you fin d yourself listening to a masterpiece. Over and over again.\nEven with the anti-entropic rising popularity of each release\, Voivod still were far f rom a household name. The macro-solution to this mega-problem? Sign with M CA for three records and a commercial apex that may never come again. Noth ingface became the bands best and best-selling album\, featuring flawless digital production\, a newfound restraint in tempos and arrangements\, and a more thoughtful\, poetic lyrical approach. If you have not heard Voivod \, this is the place to start.\n\nThe tours that followed became the stuff of legend. A support slot for Canadian metal arena heroes Rush. A statesi de club tour with newcomers Faith No More and Soundgarden. A constant rota tion of the album’s first single “Astronomy Domine” (a tour de force reworking of the Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd classic) on MTV’s Headbanger’ s Ball didn’t hurt either.\n\nBut after such dizzy heights are so nearly reached\, a fall becomes inevitable. By 1991\, there was pressure for Voi vod to be better yet. MCA’s definition of better was to cut out the most demanding elements\, tone down the metal\, and work with a name producer. During the Angel Rat sessions\, tensions flared. The opportunity existed for Voivod to create a masterwork which might move their music into a new field entirely. From progressive metal to progressive rock. The Voivod cha racter had been abandoned\, and so had many of the most recognizable eleme nts from previous albums. With the right combination of events and people\ , this might have been an album to rival Nothingface which was so unique a nd perfect and uncompromising. But\, not unlike Brian Wilson’s failed at tempt to create a masterpiece of Smile\, that combination of events did no t transpire.\n\nBlacky quit the group\, ending a stunningly artistic first period in the group’s history. The following album “The Outer Limits ” and its tours would require session bass players to fill the gap he le ft.\nThe Outer Limits succeeds in all of the areas in which Angel Rat fail ed\, except for one: nothing ever broke the band to a mainstream audience. Chalk it up to internal and external pressures\, the dual ghettos of the prog-rock and metal crossroads where the Voivod dwelt\, and the untimely e xplosion of Grunge and Alternative. It was all these elements and more tha t created a band more resigned to its fate. That realization\, along with a healthy severance budget from MCA\, made it possible for the band to cre ate a lasting work of art\, possibly its last for a corporate sponsor. Fro m the jagged crush of “Lost Machine” to the 17-minute opus “Jack Lum inous”\, The Outer Limits is a rich jazz/metal journey into psychedelic spatial realms\, that manages to retain melody and pop sensibilities witho ut compromise.\nSilence yawned over the Voivod camp for some time. Their “Iron Gang” fan club had long since disbanded. Founding member and voc alist Snake had departed after the TOL tours\, despite evidence of a growi ng audience of Angel Rat fans who were beginning to discover the rest of t he band’s catalog. Away and Piggy were left holding the reins of their c reation. But truly\, Away was responsible for the concept\, the artwork\, the drive. And Piggy wrote much of the music. By the mid-90s\, an undergro und metal scene was brewing once more. A scene for which Voivod was as inf luential and responsible as their metal heroes had been to them.\nEnter Er ic Forrest and Slipdisc records. The best solution for filling two vacanci es? Hire one man. Forrest’s abilities on the 4-string as well as the str ength of his voice provided the perfect match for a leaner\, hungrier Voiv od. With digital recording costs dropping throughout the industry\, indepe ndent money for a record became a viable solution\, particularly for a tri o with more direct ambitions. Negatron was not an album so much as an expe riment. Michel “Away” Langevin\, Dennis “Piggy” Damour\, and Eric Forrest went in the studio without a concept\, and jammed. The results wer e cruder and more aggressive than any previous recording\, yet retained a sonic excellence and truly modern sensibility that placed them less in the prog-metal camp\, aligning the group closer to groups like Neurosis and B rutal Truth.\nExtensive Negatron tours followed\, and the world began to r ealize that the Voivod still lived. Forrest was capturing the nuances of S nake’s vocal style\, while alternatingly flooring or alienating fans wit h his own death metal approach. What subtlety from the MCA era had been lo st was more than balanced by the returned aggression from the Noise years. Now it was time for the Voivod to return.\n\nPhobos woke the creature fro m its nothing-faced slumber\; pitting him in a global war. Even heavier th an Negatron\, this record blankets the listener in a cloud of analog sound \, thick and almost stifling. More psychedelic than Angel Rat\, heavier th an Killing Technology\, Phobos was a Dimension Hatross for the 90s and the most vital work the band had produced since Nothingface.\n\nFate struck o ne more blow when a tire blow-out turned the tour van over on the German s lopes of the Phobos tour. Eric Forrest was nearly killed\, surviving to en dure multiple major surgeries\, and permanent injury to his legs and back. Amazingly\, Eric weathered rigorous rehabilitation and physical therapy\, and recommenced Voivod tour with co-headliners Neurosis and support compl iments of Today is the Day. Eric sang\, played bass\, and walked with a ca ne to be in the band he loved.\nBut to the dismay of some (and the relief of others)\, Eric eventually was asked to stepped down.\nA new light and l ife entered the Voivod camp. Snake returned to sing after a seven year hia tus and the aborted Union Made project. Longtime friend and fan Jason News ted (ex-Metallica) did bass &\; production duties on the Voivod’s nex t three studio albums.\n\nDue to his visibility with Metallica (and tempor ary membership on Ozzy Osbourne’s band)\, Jason Newsted helped Voivod ac hieve new found visibility and helped the band secure a slot in 2003’s O zzfest where the band probably played for the largest crowds ever.\n\nAs t he band worked on their 14th album\, disaster struck VOIVOD again. In the summer of 2005\, guitarist Denis “Piggy” D’Amour was diagnosed with colon cancer\, and as he entered the hospital for a routine operation\, se veral complications led his doctors to find out that his cancer was inoper able\, as it was too advanced and had already spread to his liver. Denis  slipped into a coma on Thursday August 25th  and died less than 24 hour s later in the palliative care unit of a Montreal hospital\, surrounded by family and friends. He was 45 years old.\n\nThe band chose to use the gui tar demos Piggy had recorded for the new album\, and finished and released the recordings as an album titledKatorz\, as a tribute to the guitar geni us.\n\nOn 2009\, the band used other unreleased guitar demos Piggy had rec orded and built a new album around them\, with the help of Nothingface’s   producer Glen Robinson. The album was titled Infini.\n\nAfter Piggy’ s passing\, and despite the almost certainty that Voivod’s story as a ba nd had come to an end\, some reunion jams in 2008 with original bassist Je an-Ives Theriault and Martyr guitarist Dan Mongrain\, led to the band to s tart touring again as Voivod. As some touring opportunities were offered t o the band\, they did some major touring in 2008\, 2009 and 2010\, playing in the USA\, Europe and Japan\, and releasing the Live DVD Voivod Tatsum aki Voivod Japan 2008.\nWith Blacky and Dan “Chewy” Mongrain on board\ , the band continued to tour around the world in 2011 and 2012\, and in 20 13\, the band finally released the long-awaited new album\, Target Earth\ , the first Voivod album without its guitarist and founder Piggy. Target Earth surpassed all expectations\, and drew positive reviews all around t he world\, and was included in some Best-of-2013 Metal lists.\nDue to some problems’s with Snake’s health\, the band was not able to tour extens ively in 2013-2014\, but they still managed to play some metal festivals a nd shows all around the world\, including Japan\, Chile\, and Brasil.\nOn July 11th 2013\, Voivod announced the departure of bassist and founding me mber\, Jean Ives “Blacky” Theriault for “personal reasons”. The ba nd recruited Dominique “Rocky” Laroche as their new bass player and he made his debut with Voivod on 2014.06.12 at the Jonquiere en Musique Fe stival\, in their hometown Jonquiere QC\, Canada LOCATION:\, \, X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=\, ;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TI TLE=:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Chicago X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Chicago BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20151101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR