Customer Reviews

Killing Technology

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Poor Voivod. They're gonna wind up being one of those bands like the MC5, too far out to be appreciated in their day, having to settle for being "influential" but never breaking through or making any money. It'll take several years before people really start acknowledging them appropriately.
For me, this is the ultimate Voivod record. Earlier albums "War and Pain" and "Rooooooaaar" were HEAVY, crazed and iconoclastic, but only hinting at the synapse-destroying, dissonant bizarre-ities they were capable of. For one glorious analog moment, their thrash roots were cheek-to-jowl with their more self-indulgent ambitions -- put that baby in the supercollider and you get Killing Technology. They were still breathing flames sonically, and their more cerebral leanings hadn't yet taken over (I'm not so much a fan of their most popular record, Nothingface -- the edges are too polished and I like them better when they shoot razors). If you love Voivod, this is the record you should marry.

Killing Technology was Montreal based Voivod's third album and the one where their sound became fully realized. The first two albums were good, but marred by muddy sound and the songwriting wasn't quite there yet. On KT they nailed it. When this came out in 1987 the only other band that was as heavy was Kreator. But Voivod were different in their use of really ugly dissonant chords and almost progressive structures all within an extremely brutal thrash context.

Lyrically Killing Technology is very dark and science fiction themed, something Voivod would explore quite a bit on later albums. The songs are about man's destruction or enslavement by his own technology or a world out of balance. For example, Forgotten in Space is about a jail ship full of prisoners both criminal and political blasted out into space to an unknown fate. Ravenous Medicine is about being used in Mengele type medical experiments as a human guinea pig and Tornado is about weather with a vendetta. When combined with the dark thrashing music of Piggy (guitar), Blacky (bass) and Away (drums), Snakes lyrics become the soundtrack to a technological apocalypse, the true soundtrack to the Terminator.

Voivod continued their science fiction oriented thrash sound on their brilliant follow up album Dimension Hatross but on subsequent albums they gradually cleaned up their sound. On Killing Technology they play at their gritty, grinding and noisy best. Killing Technology is a claustrophobic and paranoid masterpiece. It's a great album from one of the most original bands in metal and truly deserves to be called a classic.

With 'War and Pain' and 'Rrrooorrr' (is that enough r's?) Voivod were a pretty typical thrash band that would be found on the heavy labels of the day like Combat, Megaforce, Metal Blade, Noise, etc. They wore the leather and spikes, played heavy and fast, and sang about death and ways to die and such. Not being native English speakers, Voivod's lyrics were often awkward in the early days also. But 'Killing Technology' is the turning point. The strides made from 'Rrrroooarrr' are amazing. Their progressive tendencies begin to show, especially on one of my all-time favorites, 'Forgotten in Space.' This is the first of Voivod's three brilliant albums in a row in my opinion along with 'Dimension Hatross' and 'Nothingface.'

I had tried in vain about a year or so ago to buy this disc with no luck. It is probably due to the untimely passing of Denis "Piggy" D'Amour that "Killing Technology" is readily available now.
When considering great bands of the past, how many had guitarists so original and innovative that without that person, the identity of the band would fall apart? Unlike tons of outfits out there who can easily replace shred guitar players, only a relative few ever truly reshaped the guitar landscape. Some were famous - Hendrix, Van Halen, Frank Zappa (don't even mention Eric Clapton to me)- some not so famous but no less influential. Piggy was hailed in super heavy metal circles and relatively unknown outside them, which is a travesty.
Beginning with their third CD "Killing Technology", Voi Vod tossed aside the by-the-numbers thrash of their first two mediocre albums and suddenly became one of metal's most innovative outfits, ever. Industrial without computers and synthesizers. Alien and hostile and so futuristic the tunes will still sound fresh 50 years from now. Piggy's vast chordal knowledge, along with volumes up to 11, created a maelstrom of metallic fallout. "Killing Technology" starts off with the title track that tells us something is definitely up, and by the third song, "Tornado", we've been swept into a sonic vortex as brutal as its lyrical topic. No plain old power chords here.
"Ravenous Medicine" may be the most accessible tune, but only barely so. In short, metal took a gigantic leap forward with this and its follow-up, the positively brilliant "Dimension: Hatross". Both CD's could have made a fine double album, such is the seemless groove between them.
The metal world lost a great pioneer with Piggy's passing. Let us hope his work was not in vain, and that Voi Vod eventually gets the credit it's due as one of the most original and powerful metal bands ever.

...it is an absolute, unadulterated WORK OF ART. Here, the band proves they are/were the best thrash metal band of all time. I would say this is Voivod's best album, and it's a great place for new fans. Snake, Blacky, Away, and of course Piggy (R.I.P.) are in top form here. Best song is the title track.
1. Killing Technology 6/5
2. Overreaction 5/5
3. Tornado 5/5
4. Too Scared To Scream 5/5
5. Forgotten In Space 5/5
6. Ravenous Medicine 5/5
7. Order Of Blackguards 5/5
8. This Is Not An Exercise 5/5
9. Cockroaches 5/5

R.I.P. Denis "Piggy" D'Amour
1959 - 2005
:'(

When Killing Technology came out back in the 80s it blew me away. They were and still are ahead of their time and definitely are an acquired taste. I do like all there old albums but this one stands out as the best. My fave tracks are "Volcano" and "Forgotten in Space". But all the songs are good. Hail Warriors of Ice!!!! Long live metal!!!

Back in '88, with their 4th LP "Dimension Hatross", Voivod usurped Celtic Frost's throne as THE pioneers in avant-garde heavy metal. But "Killing Technology" came close to doing it a year earlier against Frost's "Into the Pandemonium".

This album has all of the aggression of their earlier works, and the technical proficiency of later releases. With more intricate guitar-work and intense percussion than you will hear in music with this much raw energy. If you're interested in which albums have had the most impact on metal; this is a must.

Along with Watchtower and Fates Warning, Voivod were the pioneers of prog metal in the 80's. I haven't listened to Voivod much, but when i do, i always find it interesting. Prog metal is really my cup of tea and i think this is a classic. For me as a pacifist, i find the lyrics very good. They show how ugly the world is with all these "killing technologies".

My first thoughts and many others when listening to this album back in the 80's was WOW these guys sound like NO OTHER! This is some type of Intergallactic Cyber punk metal it seems! These Canadians put you on a trip on this album. Low neck, high speed guitaring and high neck distorted bass riffs is what voivod is all about. Lots of strange time changes just fit right in aswell. I cant say enough good things about voivod and this album, if your into experimental space exploration metal check this out. My other most favs from voivod are Nothingface and Dimention Hatross. Older stuff like AARrrrr is cool, anger rat started to fall off.

It was the 1987, heavy metal was living a good time (Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth has reached the masses) and Voivod published a marvellous album like Killing Technology (noone thinked two years later Voivod could came out with one of the greatest - and influent - album of all time: the musical monster called Nothingface).
This is the point of no return for Voivod. Definitely abandoned the chaotic universe of the two previous records, they finally decided that there's more and more sonicscapes they can reach and KT is the result of this research.
KT hasn't found the cold silent statements of "Nothingface" yet, and the attitude of the band is still anchored to the past and to the hyper speed of thrash metal (which it has found its finest hour in those years...), but it seems that in some way the schizoid attitude of the band has won onto the willt to be heavier and faster than Slayer. The fan understood that, and - of course - they were fascinated of such metamorphosis. When the band rocks it rocks very hard (such it happens in "Tornado" and in "The Order Of The Blackguards"), but when creativity and schizofrenia has its course there's noone who can stop such madness ("Too Scared To Scream", "Ravenous Medicine" and the incredible "This Is Not An Exercise"). The structures has been dilatated, the lyrics are now well focused and - at the same time - more complex and fleeting. Here there are the Voivod's paradoxes, the same ones that will be amplified on the next albums (Dimension Hatross and Nothingface): a sort of "secret ingredient" that makes Voivod so unique.