Ex-FORBIDDEN Guitarist: PIGGY Was One Of 'Greatest Innovators'

Former FORBIDDEN/MANMADEGOD and current SPIRALARMS guitarist Craig Locicero has issued the following statement regarding the passing of VOIVOD guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour:

"First off, I must say how saddend by the passing of Piggy (Denis). My heartfelt condolences to his family and his band members.

"Now that I've had a couple of days to really let it sink in, I feel I must pay my respects to one of the greatest innovators in all of modern metal/punk/hard rock.

"The reason I listed so many styles of music is because he touched on all of them so effortlessly. Musical growth and experimentation is exactly what Denis was all about. Here was a man that couldn't have cared less about what the outside world was thinking when he would create the style that flowed out of his figures so naturally.

"When VOIVOD started out, they were considered noise by most who listened to them. Clashing chords that nobody ever imagined as being musical grating down the listeners back, like fingernails down the chalkboard.

"Wow, I remember saying to myself, 'What the fuck are those guys doing?' The answer was, whatever the hell they felt like. That was just the beginning for Piggy and VOIVOD. The way they continued to experiment with groundbreaking song writing and melodies is still mindblowing. Every record (they were records, kids) was like crawling down a (angel) rathole of surprises — you had no idea what they going to do. Always a surprise, or ten! They really started getting a defined sound with 'Nothingface'.

"I distinctly remember some of the metal world getting upset that VOIVOD was getting soft, commercial, bla bla bla. Same old stuff, really. Truth be told, it all comes back to the same thing I said earlier — they could have given two shits about what anyone thought. They were just growing at a break-neck speed. That's something almost all metal bands won't do because of the pressure to 'fit in.' Piggy's style was universal by this time; he incorporated all that he started out with into something so beautiful it was even more of a 'fuck you' than before. See, he understood that the small-minded boundaries that exist in that genre of music are unimportant. Expression is everything. He let it all happen, all of the time!

"When Jason Newsted decided to join VOIVOD full-time, a lot of people said a lot of things. Not all of them nice. I completely understood why he did it. Here is a guy who stood at the top of the mountain for a long, long time. Jason did almost everything he could have over the period of time that he was in METALLICA, everything but being a part of what he really loved about the band in the first place. Being a part of the innovation that they started with that made them the kings of the metal world. What more could he have done with those guys? Really? Made more money? He had enough, I think. Obviously, Jason is a man who knows what true greatness is. He was very happy to be making music with the pioneers, VOIVOD! He understood the true calling of music, TO GROW!!!

"I asked Jason how it was jamming with Piggy and he lit up like a kid. I knew exactly why.

"The last thing I'll say is this... I put Piggy up there with the very best guitarists on the planet. Too many to mention — you can mention anyone you respect and he fits right in.

"Piggy was an amazing guitarist, a rebel, a pioneer, a huge influence on me, and a great person. I will miss hearing what he would have done next, but at least we all have what he'd already done to look back at with amazement."