Katorz

Voivod | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 25, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The End Records
• ASIN: B000G7PNY0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,936 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

From the Artist

His main concern was letting the record company down. They had given his band another chance. They were putting money behind it. They did what they said they were going to do. What a concept! And he saw that. He felt he let the band down and the record company down. That's his mentality. So we knew we had to make sure everybody heard what he had to share, his last stuff." – Excerpt from Jason talking about Piggy in this interview.

Product Description

The follow-up to 2003's "Voivod", "Katorz" is the first album in the band's 20-plus-year career that did not feature founding guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour working alongside his bandmembers in the studio. D'Amour died August 26, 2005 in a Montreal hospital from complications of advanced colon cancer.

In order to record "Katorz", singer Denis "Snake" Belanger, drummer Michael "Away" Langevin, and bassist Jason "Jasonic" Newsted utilized all of the guitar parts that Piggy had recorded for the record on his laptop with ProTools before his death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Long Live Piggy, September 3, 2006

By 

Ken Pierce "Editor, PiercingMetal.com" (Brooklyn,, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Katorz (Audio CD)

Everyone knows the phrase "with triumph comes loss", but as I listened to the most recent release by the band Voivod, I had to wonder if "with loss comes triumph" as well. The reason I bring this theory to light is due to the sad truth that the group would lose founder and riff wizard Denis "Piggy" D'Amour to colon cancer in August of 2005. Prior to his illness and throughout his treatment demos were written and worked on in hope that he would recover and the new recording could be completed and released for their fans. When this would not be a possibility anymore and Piggy succumbed to the illness and died, the band was faced with what should be done and more important - what would be right to do. Before his death, Piggy had instructed drummer Michel "Away" Langevin on the whereabouts of the demos and that he wanted this music completed and reach their fans. From there it would be far from simple, but yet it would be done and the results serve as a fitting reminder to the creative musician D'Amour was. It's an interesting album that sounds quite good especially when you take into account the means that it was recorded and what the members had available to them to do it. From the demos with Piggy's last guitar work and Jason's bass, drums were added by Michel while vocals were hammered out by "Snake" Belanger in his home. It is not the typical album creation scenario but the guys rose above it all. As you play this Hard Rock & Punk influenced album at any volume you will be hard-pressed to find any limitation to it. "Getaway" is a great opener and has a slight Motorhead vibe to which is never a bad thing and Snake has a great feel to his vocal here and on "After All" (two of my preferred tracks). An interesting observation to the recording is the tightness between bass and drums which was fantastic as while the two instruments are normally recorded together that was not possible for the demo work and found Michel figuring out the feel from the tapes. He shines through especially in how he slows down and speeds up as if he was sitting there with the other guys. The whole effort was then produced by Glen Robinson, who fans will remember from their killer album "Nothingface". Musically, I guess that "Odds & Frauds" will be one of the most popular tracks along with "Polaroid's" as the first is one of the catchiest and the latter is perhaps the trippiest of the albums music. The album as a whole is in the same direction that album and not like the early Thrash fests that the band used to deliver. Personally, I always preferred the direction that they were going with both "Nothingface" and "Angel Rat", as the group was taking experimental journeys with their music that were both interesting very creative.

This would be the bands first release on The End Records and the label would be behind them for the whole process. Voivod had a strong fan base and you either loved them or hated them, as sometimes the change was too drastic for some listeners. Despite this you could never say that they were short on creativity and that's what makes having this album worthwhile. Before he died, Piggy recorded 23 demo tracks and this recording has the first ten of them. The remaining songs will go through the same process that gave us "Katorz" and with them the world will be able to better appreciate the quality of player that Piggy was and the impact he had on many of Hard Rock and Metal's finest.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Last Voivod Sonic Adventure with Dennis, July 26, 2006

By 

J. H. Infante (Guadalajara, Ja, Mex) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Katorz (Audio CD)

Katorz marks the end of an era for Voivod with the departure of Dennis Damour cornerstone of this band sound, despite it all Dennis were the constant on the Voivod Line-up even when the band called it a day time ago, a few years ago, renovated, refreshed with a new Bassist, no other than ex-Metallica Jason Newsted Voivod returned with their remarkable 13th album but things were destined to change soon.

Katorz were not quite completed by Piggy , actually many of the riffs recorded by him before his death were captured in his
laptop and using an unorthodox recording process the other members worked the rest of the material based on that recordings, the result is a complete masterpiece of progressive psychodelic and experimental metal with the sci-fi concept added this is evident in cuts like the opening "the getaway","dognation" , "Mr. Clean", the awesome "silly clons", "polaroids" and "odds & frauds".

Hard to know what will follow for the canadians but if this is the end , they did it with class.

HM

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Katorz sits proudly among Voivod's best work, July 27, 2006

By 

Scott J. DuBar (Charlottesville, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Katorz (Audio CD)

Let me start off by saying that not one rave review or bit of hype surrounding Katorz has been overstated in the slightest. Piggy may have left too soon, but he sure as hell left in style. The album is stunning, raw, explosive and as fresh as anything the best new bands have put out in the past year. Building on the stripped down groundwork laid out on the previous self-titled cd, it's very close to the album I've been waiting for since the Hatross/Nothingface days. I've always regarded those two ablums as my absolute favorites, and Katorz sits proudly alongside them.

I can't really give a track by track analysis at this point, but pretty much everything I love most about Piggy's sound is here. I kind of expected this cd to be mostly guitar-driven, but everyone's efforts get to shine through. Still no robot vocals from Snake, but he sounds so cool on this album that it's not much of a disapointment. I've never heard Jasonic sound this good before. He's got a great back and forth thing going on with Piggy throughout the cd and is unlike what I'm used to hearing from Voiovd. And Away...wow...I doubt anyone worked as hard he did owing to the unintentional tempo changes of Piggy's rough tracks, but the man just flows with it in such a masterful way that he makes it seem like it's effortless for him. Kudos go to producer Glen Robinson as well.

The album, of cousre, brings up some sad feelings for me as well. No doubt Piggy would have taken these great songs and polished them and pushed them even further had he been given the time. If he had, my guess is Katorz would not simply be among their best cd's - it could have been their best.