In a week filled with disasters, this was a shock to fans of the band. D’Amour was a private person, and the seriousness of his condition was not made public until just days before his death. Voivod were never a household name, but they were well-known in the metal underground of the 80’s and maintained a loyal fan following throughout their career. Their profile had risen in the past few years due to former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted joining up with them, helping them release a self-titled reunion album in 2003. They also toured on that summer’s Ozzfest. The band had begun recording a new album when D’Amour became ill.
Voivod were an incredibly individual musical force. They truly created their own sound, one that baffled many listeners and assured that they would never make it in the mainstream. The band formed in the early 80’s in Quebec and proved to be one of the first French Canadian bands to gain any international success. Drummer Michel Langevin had developed a science fiction concept based around a post-nuclear warrior called the Voivod. The band set Langevin’s concept to music and created a frantic and aggressive thrash/punk noise inspired by Venom and Motorhead on their debut album, 1984’s War and Pain and 1986’s Rrroooaaarrr. These were two of the most extreme metal albums ever released up to that time.
1987’s awesome Killing Technology was the turning point for Voivod. Suddenly, D’Amour pulled out all the 70’s prog-rock influences that had been well-hidden up to this point. It was as if the band had been abducted by aliens, exposed to music from another dimension, and then returned to earth to combine that extra-terrestrial music only they knew with extreme metal. Still thrashing and aggressive, Voivod added wild arrangements, tricky time changes, and upside-down, inside-out, sideways guitar riffs that brought atonality and dissonance to thrash metal. Voivod’s strange, mechanical and futuristic sound began to match even more closely their concepts and lyrics, which told science fiction stories that reflected real-world fears like nuclear war and the increasing domination of the world by technology, and how the abuse of that technology could eventually doom humanity.
1988’s Dimension Hatross was the second classic in a row. This was music that truly had never been heard before. While drummer Michel “Away” Langevin and bassist Jean-Yves “Blacky” Theriault had developed into an unreal rhythm section, able to steer through odd arrangements and time signatures with prog-musician skill, it was D’Amour’s revolutionary guitar playing that made Voivod’s music so weird. He was using all kinds of exotic minor chords that were virtually unheard of in the metal world at the time. There was a harsh atonality to the guitar tone that was accentuated by heavy reverb in the production. His riffs and solos had a free-jazz feel to them that he had absorbed from 70’s experimental progressive rock guitarists like King Crimson’s Robert Fripp. Supposedly, his favorite band was prog-rock icons Emerson, Lake and Palmer. But D’Amour created his own style out of these influences. It was individual enough that other musicians would sometimes refer specifically to certain types of chords as “Voivod chords” or “Piggy chords”.I personally became aware of Voivod when I heard their awesome version of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” from 1989’s Nothingface album. This is easily the best Pink Floyd cover ever and simply one of the most righteous songs ever recorded. It took me some time to grasp the whole of the Nothingface album, since it sounded like nothing else I had heard before then. But once I finally “got it”, I was a dedicated fan. Nothingface was less aggressive and chaotic than their earlier albums, and continued Dimension Hatross’ experiments with a weird type of melody, the kind that takes a while to sink in, but once it does, it becomes hypnotically catchy. The only thing I could even remotely compare it to was Rush. Like Rush, Voivod seemed as if they had 100 more IQ points than any other metal bands at the time. Also, like early 80’s Rush, Voivod crafted weird, technical music but still played for the song. They didn’t just show off or try to be weird just for the sake of being weird. There seemed to be a lot of thought and care put into the compositions, and they created a weird, disturbing, otherworldly feel that was Voivod’s alone. Nothingface was released on a major label (MCA) and was the pinnacle of Voivod’s commercial success. The album made the Billboard Top 200 in the U.S., the video for “Astronomy Domine” got some MTV airplay, and Voivod actually headlined a club tour with future superstars Soundgarden and Faith No More.
Their next album, 1991’s Angel Rat, is still something of a mystery. It was produced by Rush producer Terry Brown and was by far Voivod’s most melodic, commercially accessible work. D’Amour’s guitar tone was noticeably softer, the vocals were noticeably calmer and it probably turned off some of the old thrash fans. Still, I think it’s a great album and it features some darkly beautiful and emotional playing by D’Amour, and shows that he was more than just a noisemaker. It seemed like in the “alternative rock” climate of the time, Voivod could have continued their success, but it didn’t happen. Angel Rat was a commercial bomb and Voivod seemed to disappear from the forefront of the underground music scene. 1993’s The Outer Limits was another strong album, still melodic but a little heavier than Angel Rat, but it went almost completely unnoticed. The band suffered lineup changes as bassist Theriault left after Angel Rat and vocalist Denis “Snake” Belanger left after The Outer Limits. D’amour and Langevin continued on, releasing two albums in the late 90’s with bassist/vocalist Eric Forrest. These albums returned to a much heavier, noisier, anti-melodic sound and Forrest’s vocals leaned towards death metal. Voivod was further underground than ever before. After Forrest was injured in an accident, it seemed that Voivod was over.However, a couple years after leaving Metallica, Jason Newsted, a longtime fan of the band, got D’Amour, Langevin, and Belanger back together and they recorded a self-titled album, released in 2003. It was a good album but not as offbeat as it seemed like Voivod should be. D’Amour still churned out some good riffs, but his playing seemed very conservative. Still, it brought the band back to life and signaled that they had a potentially bright future.
Sadly, D’Amour’s passing is almost certainly the end of Voivod. He was the band’s primary composer and his playing and writing were absolutely integral to the Voivod sound. The band had completely written and demoed material for a new album, and apparently the guitar tracks were mostly done and the other band members intend to finish the album and release it, which is what D’Amour would have wanted. Supposedly only hours before slipping into a final coma, he told Langevin how to get the guitar tracks off his computer so the album could be completed. That shows D’Amour’s dedication to his music (and also to his bandmates and fans). In his last moments, he wanted to make sure his music would not be lost.D’Amour’s influence on metal is subtle but powerful. He was such an individual player that nobody could directly copy him (to my mind, the guitarist that most resembles D’Amour in playing approach is Rush’s Alex Lifeson, who was undoubtedly an influence on D’Amour but still ultimately much different from him). Any band that deals in highly dissonant riffing, particularly “futuristic” black metal bands like later Satyricon and Thorns, as well as the more avant-garde death metal bands, owes a lot to Denis D’Amour. Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt, one of the most important musicians in metal today, issued a statement upon D’Amour’s death, citing him as a major influence. Like D’Amour, Akerfeldt incorporates jazz-by-way-of-prog-rock into his metal and has developed a distinctive style that breaks a lot of traditional boundaries.
Ultimately, it’s a testament to D’Amour’s creativity and dedication to his music that those who are influenced by him are musicians who themselves have sought not to copy, but to create. By all accounts I’ve seen, D’Amour was quiet and reserved, but was courteous and friendly, and gracious to his fans. Obviously, a guy who allowed himself to be called “piggy” for most of his life had a sense of humor and no ego trips. My condolences go out to his personal friends and family. But due to his music, his loss is felt by more than just those who knew him personally. The metal, and music world in general, has lost one of its most dedicated members.By: Dave Smith