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It was a tragic loss for the entire world of music in general, and of course for friends and family in particular, when Dennis "Piggy" D'Amour passed away from colon cancer in August of 2005 but unfortunately the forces of life and death act in cruel ways as we all experience at one time or another. Before leaving the land of the living he did however manage to write some demo material for an upcoming Voivod album together with former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. The remaining band members decided to make his wish of a new album come true and finished the material, went into the studio and came up with "Katorz". The strangely spelled album title is phonetic for "quatorze", the French word for fourteen and hence this is of course the band's fourteenth studio album. An impressive career to say the least and one that I'm sure Piggy was, and should be, proud of.'
"Katorz" is probably an album that will divide the Voivod camps since it does mark a renewal so to speak of the band's sound. It is easy to fall into the trap of praising the album mindlessly as Piggy's final legacy but I will not let my review turn in that direction. I must also admit that I have never been a huge fan of the Canadian veterans although I do appreciate much of their earlier material. This time around they have opted for a more straight-forward rock output where influences from early punk bands clearly shine through. Vocalist Denis "Snake" Belanger's characteristic vocals, the hypnotic riffing and the catchy groove still makes it apparent that it is another Voivod album we're listening to. Despite the unfortunate circumstances the band seems to have had a lot of fun while recording "Katorz". A solid party album but far too generic to be included in the catalogue of masterpieces.
| Tracklist |
| 1. The Getaway |
| 2. Dognation |
| 3. Mr. Clean |
| 4. After All |
| 5. Odds & Frauds |
| 6. Red My Mind |
| 7. Sillyclones |
| 8. No Angel |
| 9. The X-Stream |
| 10. Polaroids |
: 45.08
| Buy other Voivod albums |
