VOIVOD Frontman Slams BLABBERMOUTH.NET 'Dickheads'

VOIVOD frontman Denis "Snake" Belanger has slammed the "dickheads" on BLABBERMOUTH.NET who have reacted negatively to the online preview of the group's new track "The X-Stream". The song, which is available now for streaming at MP3.com, comes off the Canadian pioneering metal band's upcoming album, "Katorz", due in June on The End Records in North America and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe.

Responding to the comments that were posted on BLABBERMOUTH.NET following yesterday's story regarding the song's online availability, Snake wrote, "I love Blabbermouth. It's always fun to read negative comments like (this sucks) (way gay) Bla bla bla. It confirms me that I cannot please everyone and anyway this is not my goal. There are artists out there which their goals are exactly that. But I would like to see those dickheads on Blabbermouth putting a band together. It would be one of the greatest things ever happen in music industry. No one would be able to play a single note of music. They would use a beat box 'coz none of them can even count. But wait a minute, that is exactly what is playing on most music radio and television channel. C'mon guys, you can do it, it's so easy. Easy like saying 'Fuck you.'

"For those who appreciate rock/metal music in all aspect, I'd like to say thanks for your support. There's not enough rock/metal music playing out there to discredit not a single one of them. Not even [GUNS N' ROSES]. By the way, I still love them." [Snake's original post can be seen at this location — scroll down.]

As previously reported, VOIVOD recorded and mixed the album with producer Glen Robinson (ANNIHILATOR, TEA PARTY, GWAR) at Multisons studio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and mastered the CD in New York.

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", 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.

In a recent interview with Greg Prato of Billboard.com, Langevin had the following to say about the upcoming CD: "It came about in unfortunate circumstances, but the result is mind-blowing. Right before his departure, Denis explained to me that he had recorded all the tracks that we had been working on with Jason and Snake for the past two years. He had recorded that on his laptop with ProTools, and even though he would have preferred to re-do the whole thing in a real studio, there was a chance that we could use the tracks. We built the album based on the guitar tracks, which was difficult, because normally, we go the other way around — we start with the drums, and then add stuff on top. But it sounds amazing."

"'Katorz' means 14 — it's the 14th effort of the band," Belanger added. "The first time Piggy put it together and gave us the demo was on CD, [and he had written] 'Katorz', which is not the right way to write it. Of course [there is] an emotional side to it, so we took the demo, and the design of it will be his handwriting."