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Click on the song links to see the lyrics
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All-Music
Guide review
4 1/2 pts.
After the disappointing showing of
their 1991 album Angel Rat,
Voivod took two years to produce a follow-up, 1993's The Outer Limits.
And although the band offers several strong compositions, it becomes
apparent soon that Voivod had already peaked artistically on their
three preceding albums. Perhaps the band's chemistry was knocked
off balance by the defection of original bassist Jean-Yves Theriault
after Angel Rat's completion. Present is the group's second Pink
Floyd cover, the Roger Waters composition "The Nile Song (they
had covered "Astronomy Domine" earlier). The opening track, "Fix
My Heart," is one of the album's best, since the band sounds inspired
and focused, which isn't the case on some of the album's other material.
You'll also find the ambitious track "Jack Luminous" here, which
twists and turns for nearly 18 minutes, recalling the days long
gone when prog-rock ruled the earth (especially Yes, Jethro Tull,
etc.). The Outer Limits would also prove to be original vocalist
Denis Belanger's last album with the group, leaving after the following
tour's completion. --
Greg Prato, All-Music Guide
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The
Outer Limits
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Guitar
Magazine review,
September 1993, pp. 167-168.
© 1993 by Cherry Lane Magazines, Inc.
THE OUTER LIMITS - Voivod (MCA)
PERFORMANCE: Artful, progressive, and deadly riffing;
HOT SPOTS: "Fix My Heart," "Moonbeam Rider," "Time Warp," "Wrong
Way Street"
BOTTOM LINE: The best yet from fab metal futurists.
The three French Canadians of Voivod are into all kinds of Outer
Limits sci-fi concepts: time travel, space aliens, fractals, cyberpunk.
On The Outer Limits, the band's eighth album, Voivod finally captures
their imaginative abstractions in both lyrics and music, making
a superb album of progressive guitar riffing. Voivod bring elements
of punk, the prog-rock of Rush
and Queensryche and the
new thrash melodicism of Megadeth
to play on The Outer Limits. Combining the gorgeous, blistering
guitar parts of Denis D'Amour with Denis Belanger's futuristic lyrics
and Michel Langevin's philosophies and neck-braking drumming, Voivod
create fiercely propellant songs that can be hugely hooky ("Fix
My Heart," "Wrong Way Street"), wildly chaotic ("The Nile Song"),
or mechanically riveting ("The Lost Machine"). The trio even pulls
off the 17-minute "Jack Luminous" by blowing together enough aggressive,
burning riff sections to keep things interesting. The Outer Limits
is a great guitar record, but has few true leads in its tracks --
D'Amour welds together layers of highly developed parts that draw
you in again and again. It's Voivod's best since 1989's Nothingface,
and the top progressive metal album of the year so far.
-- Buzz Morrison
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