Voivod: The Outer Limits Full Album

Voivod

Back in the late eighties, my brother got an album by a band from Quebec that I had not heard of before. They were new to me, and the album cover looked futuristic. When he played the album, it also sounded futuristic, different than anything I had ever heard before. So the band was metal, which at the time especially was a plus. They were from Quebec, which I felt I could identify with, being French. Another plus. And the album sounded awesome and unique, completely different than anything I had heard up to that point. Another huge plus.

The band was Voivod. The album was Nothingface. They had another album, Dimension Hatross, which also sounded futuristic and incredible. Needless to say, I became a fan.

Yet, my funds were limited, so my collection was only built up slowly. I kind of half expected them to get huge, or at least much bigger than they were. But they never seemed to break it big, for some reason. Sadly, they remained relatively obscure, which is a real shame. They deserved to be much bigger than they wound up being.

One of their albums turned out to be arguably better, and at least just as good as either Nothingface or Dimension Hatross.That would be The Outer Limits, which they came out with in 1993. Frankly, that album could have been their breakthrough under different circumstances. It is quite unique in sound as well, yet somehow, a bit more palatable (or so I mistakenly assumed) for public consumption. Again, though, it never really took off.

However, it is an incredible album. It very well may have replaced Nothingface as my new favorite from Voivod somewhere over the years. I would go so far as to suggest that it was one of the best albums of the nineties, and that is saying something. Back in 2015, my son and I bonded with this album (and a number of other albums) during our trip out to Arizona (and Nogales, Mexico, for one afternoon and evening). When i listen to this album, particularly specific parts of it, it still evokes memories of the southwestern desert landscape that we were traveling across when we listened to it. Somehow, the sometimes haunting sounds of some of the songs seemed to fit in that landscape.

Lately, I have found myself listening to it a bit, for some reason. There are tunes that just got in my head. So I wound up listening to it again for the first time in years.

In any case, it seemed worth sharing here.