War and Pain

This is a debut made as an extension of a self-released tape, by four musicians from Quebec. It was recorded between 19 and 27 June 1984 at Le Terroir Studio in Laterriere, produced by the band with Brian Slagel as executive producer and Guy Pedneault engineering. The line-up is Snake on vocals, Piggy on guitar, Blacky on bass and Away on drums. Away drew the sleeve and everything visual that followed, and the figure of the Voivod walking through a post-nuclear world starts here. The playing is rough, the tempos run and the edges of the sound are crushed. That is the character of the record, and it sits closer to early hardcore and to Motorhead than to the thrash around it. The progressive writing they would reach a few years later is not here yet, but the odd choices of chord already show. The running order here is the 1984 LP's as printed; the cassette adds "Condemned to the Gallows".