VOIVOD's AWAY: Why We Decided To Reform The Band

February 27, 2003

In a recent interview with Germany's Voices From The Darkside, VOIVOD drummer and founding member Michel Langevin (a.k.a. Away) revealed the circumstances that led to the departure of previous bassist/vocalist Eric Forrest and the return to the group of original singer Denis Belanger (a.k.a. Snake).

"[Eric] didn't leave the band actually," Away explained. "In early 2001, [guitarist] Piggy and I decided to split up the band. [Guitarist] Piggy and I, we had the feeling that VOIVOD as a band had come to a dead end with the line-up that we had with Eric. The [road] accident [in Germany that resulted in Eric's injury] really slowed the band down. By the time that Eric came back after a recovery of over a year, we still toured a little. But by the end of 2000, the band was really broken because of lawsuits, the crash in Germany… At that time, those were the main reasons why we thought it was best to split up the band. There was no more spirit in the band and so Snake was the first guy we thought about phoning. Snake was immediately very excited too … There were a few months when there was no more VOIVOD and then we got together in the summer of 2001 with Snake … We [also] thought about [getting former METALLICA bassist] Jason [Newsted] to play the bass parts. Jason was very excited about that idea, he told us he would help us out with the production and so we spent about a year and a half writing the songs for the album. At the end of 2002, in September, we went to Jason's studio and started working on the production. On the 27th of September, Jason told us that he wanted to join the band full-time which was a very pleasant surprise for all of us. We really get along very well, so we went to a studio called The Plant in San Francisco. That's the main story."

(Thanks: Voices From The Darkside)

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