There’s something uniquely unhinging about this album. There’s such a mix of genres in here I don’t even know where to begin, but whatever part of Voivod it is that you like, you’ll find it on Target Earth. There’s some wild guitar, along with strange, shifting time signatures and dissonant rhythms that keep you listening in suspense for the next erratic transition. The first forty seconds prepares to launch you into the album with a thick, swelling wave of groovy bass and a skirmish of minor chords, Denis Bélanger’s rasping punk-rock vocals, and energetic drums. The songs are all pretty long, allowing new guitarist Daniel Mongrain plenty of space to expound his mind-boggling riffs, and the Québec quartet have even included their first French track, ‘Corps Étranger’ (“foreign body”), which sounds so quintessentially and tremendously… French- in the most metal way possible.
Without sounding like anything else, there are riffs reminiscent of King Crimson, and there’s something very Dillinger-Escape-Plan-y about ‘Mechanical Mind’ in that mathematical onslaught kind of way. ‘Warchaic’ is an awesome song (and an awesome word to say out loud), and is a good example of the efforts the band have gone to throughout the album to seduce the listener and keep them fully immersed in this sonic medley of genres. If you haven’t heard Voivod before, give this album a listen because there is something here that will appeal to all metal palates. Plus, ‘Kluskap O’Kom’ has a really weird beginning that you’ve just gotta hear for yourself. (check out the YouTube clip below)
Released: January 22, 2013
Genre: Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal
Producer: Voivod
Label: Century Media Records
