War and Pain

by 
AlbumAug 10 / 198431 songs, 2h 25m 25s
Thrash Metal
Popular

As Metallica did with *Kill ‘Em All*, Montreal’s Voivod helped introduce the strain of punk-charged metal known as thrash with its 1984 debut album, *War and Pain*. But where Metallica proved to be consummate songwriters, Voivod’s early recordings spotlight a band more interested in musical athleticism and a semi-conceptual theme that rails against impending futuristic nihilism. Bassist Blacky Thériault and drummer Away Langevin set up the following “Warriors of Ice” with thundering rhythms that gallop like the fiery hooves of the apocalyptic four horsemen’s mares. When Piggy D’Amour’s muscled riffs come charging in alongside Snake Bélanger’s war-cry vocal attack, it’s easy to comprehend why such foreboding militaristic themes pepper this album. D’Amour’s hard-chugging strums detonate into adroit fretboard pyrotechnics in “Suck Your Bone,” a salient cut in which Bélanger’s vocals ride the line between a spitting sneer and glass-shattering falsettos.

3 / 5

k 235 April 1989 Magazine with 52 Pages from csfh87.

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3.5 / 5

Voivod - War and Pain review: The not-so-humble beginning of one of metal’s finest acts.