Customer Reviews

Angel Rat

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every bit as good as "Nothingface" and "Dimension Hatross", "Angel Rat" got lost in the shuffle for no good reason. While they'd always straddled the border between thrash metal and progressive rock, this was the album where they veered furthest into the prog region. Many of their fans weren't ready for this direction at the time (myself included). But hindsight has vindicated this album, artistically if not commercially. It is the band's loss and your gain that this album can usually be found in the cutout bin. Timeless.

Voivod's ANGEL RAT is a 1991 album that was sadly overlooked at the time of its release...It was produced by Terry Brown, who has worked w/ Rush. The album bridges the gap in between the thrash metal Voivod of the eighties & the "mature" sound that the band carried into the nineties & beyond.

At the time of its release, ANGEL RAT saw the band carrying on as a three-piece machine, w/ Denis "Snake" Belanger/Vox, Denis "Piggy" D'Amour (R.I.P.)/Guitar/Keyboards, and Michel "Away" Langevin/Drums. Although Voivod was without the services of Jean-Yves "Blacky" Theriault (Bass), the album still maintains a full sound throughout.

ANGEL RAT continues the band's musical direction that was put forth on NOTHINGFACE (1989). Musically, this album is somewhere in between metal & prog. rock. Standout tracks include "Clouds In My House," "Golem," & "None Of The Above." Lyrically, this album dabbles in the Sci/Fi genre w/ abstract words painted over esoteric layered guitars.

Check this album out!! Get lost inside it!! It can be purchased for a few bucks (used), so it's worth the trip!!

Also, check out Voivod's "Nothingface" & "Outer Limits," which are both musically & lyrically similar in style.

if you have never heard voivod,and your tastes run towards the power metal/progressive metal subgenres,this album will most surely satisfy.
if you are already a voivod fan,but dissed this when it first came out because they "sold-out",well you need to re-evaluate.
this album is,in a word,incredible

While not as progged-out as _Nothingface_ or the follow-up _The Outer Limits_, one has to think that if Voivod is one of metal's great undiscovered pleasures then this is their most underrated moment. This album is a masterpiece of colorful neo-psychadelic textures and magnificent musical economy. Songs like the majestic and cosmic "Clouds In My House", the space-age "Nuage Fractal" and especially the stunning title track show Voivod approaching Rush through Pink Floyd's eyes. Piggy's (guitarist Denis D'Amour) riffing is simply masterful on this album and wholly original, retaining elements of Alex Lifeson, the glissando guitar of Steve Hillage and the jagged chording of Robert Fripp. Not to be outdone, drummer Michael Langevin kicks up a storm on "Best Regards" while Snake (lead vocalist Denis Belanger) turns in a suprisingly melodic and restrained performance, while leading a lyrical shift away from the typical "Adventures of the Voivod" style of writing; Hard-driving bassist Jean-Yves Theriault - despite leaving the band almost immediately after the album's release and only getting a studio musician credit - still makes his presence felt on "The Golem." Although the complexity of the songwriting has been toned down just a bit here there are still surprising twists and turns in each of the songs, perhaps most exhibited by the psychadelic interlude in "Twin Dummy". Possibly stung by the poor commercial reception for this album, only the hard-driving "The Prow" still remains a live staple for the band today. Not enough bands make such thoughtful, textured music like this anymore. All in all, an excellent and unfortunately out-of-print album that is well worth hunting down.

This is the second time I had to buy this CD, in fact it was my fourth CD that I got that was a repurchase. Thankfully I got it from EBay.com when they had it on there. This album has a lot of trippy moments, Panorama is the heaviest song on the CD but they take their roots of Pink Floyd and do their own CD using this style.

This was the CD that came out after the departure of Blackly, but Away, Snake and Piggy carried on without him with a session player. This one is said to have the legendary tour of Soundgarden supporting them along with another. Hell it's hard to go track by track with this one because each one has some sentimental value for me.

I wish I got this CD as a new release in 1991 because this one is actually stronger than Metallica's Black Album which came out the same year. Describing this CD as heavy metal is a good description but AWAY called this one almost Gothic in the way it's done. Meaning they're influences lay within Bauhaus and Joy Division as much as they're influenced by King Crimson.

The album I had at the time I owned this album was Nothingface. My best friend dubbed me a copy from tape (this is what we did in the 1990s. Then will go out and buy the new releases too. I bought The Outer Limits on tape and that was my most played CD. I got the E-Force cycle after Piggy's passing so hearing this album tugs at my strings a bit because I remember meeting the Negatron era in 1996.)

I was barely 20 at the time well I was about two months before turning 20 years old. There is no other band like VOIVOD, and no album is the same with them. So when you hear Angel Rat, it's one you have to play on its own terms. Clouds In My House was their single and I saw the video for this song and must say I am impressed. This one puts them there with Blue Oyster Cult in terms of thinkng man's heavy metal.

Lyrically they're heavy into the science fiction storytelling. Now if you had AWAY sitting down and writing books based on the lyrics he'd have about 100 books based off the lyrics because how unique they are. Well Piggy was their leader, and hearing this one makes me cry a little bit because this was Piggy at his most creative with the guitar work.

This CD is my most played of the Snake era stuff. It's my favorite one for personal reasons, and if you can get a good used copy consider yourselves lucky. This one goes as far as $50.00 used now so therefore it's a collectable. It's as of this year a classic. So when I talk about this album in that light, it's underground classic metal.

Track four on this one has a good use of Gothic keyboards on there and it has a strong solo from Piggy on there. Almost Iron Maiden like in the delivery. The very end part of the guitars go into a strong double bass drumming on The Prow and use of ocean sounds to give it a stronger effect. Of all the 1980s heavy metal bands that crossed over into the 1990s, VOIVOD has kept a cult following but never seen the success that Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax gained at different moments of their career.

VOIVOD didn't get noticed respectively until Jason Newsted signed them to Chophouse using his money made from Metallica to make sure they didn't have to work another day in their life. VOIVOD in 2003 reached the role model status for a younger generation of metalheads too with little kids rock (something that Jason Newstead contributed to since his days with Echobrain.) For him to do that, that's a story of looking out for his best friends since his Metal Blade Days when he played with Flotsam and Jetsam.

This album is one of those you might appreciate 20 years later if you can still find it. Even now it's very hard to find but if you can get it used consider yourself lucky and don't let the thing leave your sight.

Not three words you commonly associate with heavy metal. But then Voivod is no common metal band.

This record and its follow-up "The Outer Limits" had little or nothing to do with the two previous bizarre gems "Nothingface" and "Dimension Hatross". But the four together document an amazing transformation by an amazing band.

"Angel Rat" by itself is a wonderful little post-psychedelic rock masterpiece. At the time of release, it was woefully ignored by fans and press alike, expecting "Dimension Nothingface" I imagine. The songs are fairly simple and straight-forward in style and structure, though anything but ordinary at heart. Supposedly based on Russian myths and fairy tales, the tracks are bright, uplifting, hopeful, even at their weirdest moments.

This album came out at almost the same time as Smashing Pumpkins' "Gish". And it deserved to have attained that level of popularity. In fact, if you liked "Gish", it'll be worth your time to check out "Angel Rat".

Is this the same Voivod that released War and Pain back in 1984?

I guess that depends on who you ask. Since they are a band that never releases the same album twice, you are going to hear different answers. As for myself, I love everything they have put out so far - even Negatron and Phobos from the controversial Eric Forrest era.

Angel Rat from 1991 is one of their more polarizing efforts. Mainly because it is not as heavy or as complex as their earlier albums. Actually, they began to soften up the guitars a little on Nothingface, which is still a phenomenal album. Snake also came a long way as a vocalist from his abrasive throat-destroying beginnings to a distinctive, if not slightly nasally, singer. Those reasons may have lead to people crying "sell out" needlessly.

Since this is a softer, simpler, and more accessible Voivod, it should be ignored?

HA!!!

Yes this is an album that only contains songs that do not stray from the traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Still, it is a very progressive work that was wrongly bashed by metal critics who expect bands to make heavier and heavier albums at the expense of songwriting. This is not Voivod-lite as they would have you believe. Instead, this is a fine album by a band that believes in challenging themselves regardless of what others think.

If you are just checking out this magnificent band, and Angel Rat is the first album by them you come across. Do not pass it up. Ignore the neanderthal critics and listen for yourself. I'm glad I did.

Voivod's unique and strange brand of science-fiction-tinged progressive rock/metal has never really clicked with the mainstream. Their willingness to experiment, rather bizarre lyrical tendencies, and a hybrid sound drawing from disparate styles and genres of music have all been a hindrance to their acceptance, but I think most Voivod fans, myself included, wouldn't have it any other way. Despite all that, some of their albums are quite catchy, and would certainly appeal to a wider audience; "Angel Rat" is certainly proof of that.

Full of catchy, pop-inflected vocals, driving rock guitar, and melodic bass lines, this album is the sort of music the casual lister would enjoy, but closer scrutiny from fans of prog will reveal intricate and unorthodox song structures, creative and artistic use of effects, clever chord voicings and experimental textures, and surreal, twilight-zone lyrical content. An amazing and approachable album which has lost none of it's appeal over the years for me; this is the best place for someone who has never heard Voivod to start...not as avant-garde or heavy as "Dimension Hatross", which is usually considered Voivod's "best" album, but the beginning of their flirtation with a more accessible yet experimental prog-rock style for a band who constantly reinvents themselves. An obscure triumph. This band has always been ahead of their time...

A strange ecclectic album from canadian metal legends Voiviod. Think Pink Floyd meets a little metal here. This album was largely ignored/unknown as the band's label support came out from under them (they only managed to play a few tour dates in canada to support this record).

Lots of compression on the production side gives this album lofty feel and not as much of a metal edge as say Nothingface (and the earlier albums). You can feel yourself glide along the water on "The Prow".. what a great tune. Piggy's ethereal guitar work and Away's MONSTER skin pounding dominate this album. The drum work is not just impressive it has purpose. Away builds varying rythyms during a couple of tunes.. startling. This album maintains a very specific feel to all the songs (the keyboard parts really add to the atmosphere). The only tune out of place is "None of the Above"...the lyrical content just doesnt fit with the rest of this stellar album. Away's artwork on the CD/liner is brilliant as usual and really lends to the theme of the whole album. This is barely not a 5 star CD.. unique, inspired.. even after all these years.

Angel Rat is one of my all-time favorite albums. The sounds and images really take you on a ride, as effectively as any movie. VoiVod weren't afraid to experiment a bit and I'm glad they did. Let AC/DC do the same formula over and over, I'll take These guys any day. I'd like to find a remastered version sometime though.