Customer Reviews

Rrrooaar

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

 

 

This second release from Montreal's metal monsters made my head hurt the 1st time I heard it. But being a stubborn cuss I listened again and again and soon found that the other albums {I bought this on vinyl back in the day} of the day sounded weak and unfocused by comparison.

At the time there quite simply was nothing like this on the planet. Black metal artists Venom and Celtic Frost might have been the inspiration but these guys swiftly moved way beyond that sort of thing.

The concept they had was dark age barbarians tribesman armed with modern high-tech weapons. The very name of the band comes from the Kurgen name for the 'leader of 100,000 warriors'. The Kurgen were in fact so vicious and brutal that the other steppe nomads of the east ran from them into the Roman Empire.

Piggy blasts out a truly unique brand of six stringed mayhem and Snake blurts such odd lyrics that you get the idea that English isn't their 1st language right off the bat. Insane imagry driven into your skull by mechanical, pounding rhythms. Riffs in the vein of vintage Black Sabbath are mixed with Cliff Burton style bass and drumming that feels like Dave Lombardo on the 1st few Slayer album.

This disk bears no resemblance whatever to Angel Rat's alternative sound but will be instantly recognizable to listeners of Negatron and the new lineup. Production is scrictly minor label, analog noise but this strangly sounds retro to the modern ear and not bad at all. Yes, you can ear the edits listening with good headphones but if that's how you listen to metal thrashing death you ain't from the same planet as me!

To "Marco Esquandolas a dragon with matches." how utterly classless and moronic of you to give a classic Voivod album a crappy review mere days after their guitar player Dennis D'Amour (aka "Piggy") died of inoperable colon cancer. You truly are a shmuck! Do the world a favor... put in another Linkin Park Cd and quit pretending you know anything about metal.

This album is very fast thrash-metal with riffs using jazzy stacked fifth chords; giving it spacey, machine like overdriven harmonies. The lyrics are about giant monsters attacking cities, mechanized warfare, zombies, and ripping headaches. the drummer is very very good. On every album he sounds like in peak form, very well-practiced.

This album is ripping and raw with lots of improvised fills, but they are a very tight band, and utilize alot of odd-time signatures. I haven't heard "Killing Technology", but I like "Rrrooaar" much more than "War and Pain" (the debute) or "Dimension Haitross" (most aclaimed).

"Rrooarr" is far more straight-forward thrash-metal than the artsy "Nothingface" and other the later progressive albums.

I say, that any band that decides to name its album "Rrrooaar" is making a clear statement.

Its Rrripping.

Despite the fact that this CD had crappy recording quality it was a great CD. Hell, Voivod had many great CDs in their career. I'm saddened to hear about the passing of Piggy (a great guitarist). The music that was created was very unique and influential to many people. Piggy has passed on but he won't be soon forgotten...he has left an awesome legacy behind for us all.

Why do I always here people put down "RRROOOAAARRR" by Voivod? It's one of the quintessential albums to have along with Slayer's "Reign in Blood", Metallica's "Master of Puppets", and Venom's "Black Metal". Voivod's 2nd album is heaviness personified. There was no other band that sounded like Voivod. They definitly stood on their own. I miss the old Voivod sound. Crazy, bombastic, and totally shredding. "RRROOOAAARRR" sounds just like the title states. This is my fave album by them. Piggy's guitar riffs are so unorthodox and his leads are always fun to listen too (too bad he died, r.i.p.). Snakes vokills are different from any other band. Blackey's bass sound is so heavy it will shake your foundations and, Away has always been a great drummer and is just as crazy as Piggy and the rest of the band when it comes to playing real heavy metal. Some highlights are "Korgull the Exterminator, F**k off and Die, Horror, Thrashing Rage, and To the Death". All are great mid 80's thrash epics. If you don't own this album you better buy it so you can be totally hardcore!

Other reviewers have pointed out some of the flaws of the album - shoddy production, most notably - and I can't dispute that; the album isn't really much of a progression from VoiVod's first, War and Pain.

That said, it is simply a brutal, hammering piece of old-school thrash metal; VoiVod's stylistic leaps forward would occur in spade on their next two recordins - Killing Technology and Dimension Hatross - but sometimes you don't need intelligent, inventive alterna-metal; sometimes all you need is a basic, raw explosion of riffage, and RRROOOAAARRR delivers that in spades.

I guess it was 1986 when I was first exposed to Voivod. They opened for Celtic Frost in Chicago, and I had never heard of them before, much less heard their music. I was still getting my feet wet in the more underground elements of the metal scene at the time. Having Metallica as my "gateway drug", I'll admit I didn't care for Voivod's music at first blush. At the time it sounded just too chaotic and noisy- I just couldn't get my head around what I was seeing and hearing. Courtesy of a compilation album named "Speed Kills", I was re-introduced a few weeks later to the track "War & Pain" from their first album. Repeated listens got me to purchase that record and subsequently the Rrroooaaarr LP. Too make a long story longer, Voivod became one of my all time favs, and I followed them faithfully into their prog-metal era (though CDs like Angel Rat & Outer Limits left me cold), and into the new "Jasonic" era with their self-titled CD (which I quite like btw).

For me, Rrroooaaarr encapsulates everything that was right about the early speed/thrash genre. Frenetic, dark, and extreme it measures up to the other seminal releases of that era from the ususal suspects. Forget the indy label production. If it sounded more polished it wouldn't have the same flavor, IMO. Voivod and this LP don't get mentioned with the likes of Slayer & Venom- but they should.

There's always been something a little otherworldly about Voivod, and it shows on this album. Maybe its Piggy's unique approach to thrash metal guitar riffs, or Away's chaotic drumming, or Snake's obvious French-Canadian accent bleeding into his vocal phrasing. Maybe its the cover art (done by drummer Away) or Snake's lyrics that paint a portrait of a dark world populated by ice warriors and Nuclear monsters circling bombed out cities.

Snake has always had a sardonic sense of humor in his lyrics. "F**k off and Die" is a classic missive to all of those "others" who just didn't get the whole head-banging thing. His cry of "Build Your Weapons!!" at the opening of the track with the same name sounds to me like a nihilistic cry to Cold War leaders with the fingers on the nuclear triggers. He almost seems to be begging them to just get it over with and press the damn button already. Its the kind of thing that makes metal fun for those on the inside, and dangerous to those too afraid to look closer. This is an album you could still crank up and scare your parents or neighbors, and hey isn't that half the fun?!?

The title pretty much says it all being a raw wall of noise and sound akin to a load of scrap metal being dumped down a staircase. Pretty straight forward, albiet it a tad cliched, old-school speed metal.... BUT...what makes it a bit diferent from the pack are elemental lyrical and stucture elements that would later develop into something quite wonderful in the way of sound and imagery in following releases, so I recommend Rooarr as a stepping stone in the Voivod trilogy. In many ways this is a small backward step from Voivod's first release, the more accessible War and Pain, as if they are trying to find their footing and 'place".

Plus, its a lotta raucous pounding FUN and I get all sweaty and smelly just listening to Snake and Co pound and rip through this!

BTW...I owned this recording on vinyl (!!) many years ago when it was first released. Now re-exploring my speed/thrash heritage Rrroooaaarr is a standout in my collection. And it should be in yours as well.

Enjoy.

You payed money for this?? It's a shame a talented drummer is wasting his talents w/ these guys. Too bad I'm required to give it a star.