Voivod: “I remember telling Hugo that it would be cool if it was like a soundtrack to early cyberpunk movies, Mad Max, Terminator, Blade Runner.”

More than four decades into a career defined by constant reinvention, Voïvod remain one of heavy music’s most singular and difficult-to-categorize bands. From thrash, punk and progressive rock through to industrial textures, sci-fi concepts and avant-garde experimentation, the Canadian pioneers have consistently expanded the boundaries of what metal can sound and feel like. Rather than settling into legacy status, the band continue to push forward, finding new ways to reinterpret their catalogue and challenge their own creative process.

Their latest release, Symphonique, captures one of the most ambitious projects in Voïvod’s history: a full live performance with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, transforming twelve songs from across their catalogue into a cinematic 73-minute experience. Recorded live in Québec City and years in the making, the project sees the band’s dystopian futurism translated into orchestral form while retaining the identity that has defined Voïvod since 1983.

In this Cover Story, founding drummer Michel “Away” Langevin reflects on turning a long-held ambition into reality, the challenges of performing alongside more than seventy orchestral musicians, and how the experience is already shaping Voïvod’s next chapter. From concept albums and evolving creative processes to video games, artwork, future symphonic performances and a new studio record currently in progress, this conversation explores a band still determined to move forward rather than look back.

I was discussing with a friend the other day how I think Voivod are one of the most difficult bands to put into one cylinder to introduce correctly. If somebody was to ask you today to describe Voivod and the Voivod of 2026, how would you go about that?

“I can only describe it as Voivod music, but we have a lot of different influences, from punk to metal, prog rock of course, industrial music from the ‘80s, what we call alternative music, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, avant-garde, classical. It’s a mixture of many influences we’ve had over the years. But the root is in heavy metal and punk.”

Are there any modern-day influences that people would be surprised to hear Voivod have taken in?

“It took about ten years before I could tell that some people might have been listening to Voivod, like Fear Factory, Meshuggah. The latest I saw, who were actually mind-blowing, were Gojira. I spoke to them after, and they listened to Voivod a lot back in the day. That’s about it. I am pretty old-school in that if I buy a new album it will be the latest album from one of my heroes, like Magma or Judas Priest. But I do go to the library here, the main library in Montreal, and borrow CDs that I don’t know, and that’s pretty fun. I went to see Dry Cleaning lately, and they were amazing here in downtown Montreal. I like a lot of music.”

That’s very cool. Voivod have a new album coming out which you recorded with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.

“Yes. We recorded that on June 4th last year. It was quite an experience and a lot of pressure on my end because, as a drummer, if I miss one beat the whole orchestra gets lost. So I was very focused. We did the show twice with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra early last year, and then we did it with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra during the summer. That’s the one we documented and are releasing.”

How did that idea come around in the first place? For anyone who’s listened to Voivod in the past, it wouldn’t be a surprise for you guys to go down that avenue, given the other stuff you’ve done, but where did the inspiration to do that and actually get on board with it come from?

“It was actually the Montreal Symphony Orchestra that reached out because of an interview I did. There’s a local organisation in Montreal that publishes a newspaper that people in difficulty can sell on street corners. I did an interview for that paper, and it ended up online. The solo bassoon from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra is a big metal dude. He brought the idea to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra directors. I came back from touring with Voivod and had a message on my answering machine saying the Montreal Symphony Orchestra were looking for me, which is amazing. It was one of our dreams for sure.”

How does the process of getting together with the orchestra and working out which songs you’re going to do, and the arrangements of the songs, compare to going into the studio and building something new? For this album you’re taking something that’s already out there and reimagining it. Are there any comparisons to be drawn or is it a completely new landscape?

“It’s a completely new landscape that influenced us in the writing and recording of the next studio album, which we are doing three songs at a time right now because of this. It took about two years to put that show together. I was mainly involved with the graphics, supplying art to many artists that animated my characters using traditional 2D animation, 3D CGI, AI and all kinds of mediums. Chewy, the guitar player, teaches jazz at college and has a lot of notions, so he charted all the songs and gave them to Hugo Bégin, the orchestrator. Hugo had a good head start, and Chewy was pitching ideas to Hugo.

For example, for the song ‘Holographic Thinking’, the band could stop and the orchestra could keep going, and then Snake the singer could sing alone with the orchestra. For another song, the orchestra could play the intro, and then we kick in. On my end, I remember telling Hugo that it would be cool if it was like a soundtrack to early cyberpunk movies, ‘Mad Max’, ‘Terminator’, ‘Blade Runner’. I also mentioned the old ‘Planet of the Apes’ movies because of the avant-garde bits in the soundtrack. He really understood what we were aiming for, some kind of dystopian movie soundtrack. As soon as Hugo started sending us his first demos, I immediately understood that he got it. I felt like I was in a scary science fiction movie immediately.

Since the arrangement was so different, we had to go into a studio to rehearse with the orchestrator’s demos. That’s how we managed to make it happen, because there are not that many general rehearsals with the orchestra. There are a couple before the first show. We really had to be ready because we knew every single member of both orchestras would be ready.”

“I remember telling Hugo that it would be cool if it was like a soundtrack to early cyberpunk movies, Mad Max, Terminator, Blade Runner.”

How many times had you rehearsed with them live before doing the actual live shows?

“We rehearsed twice the day before the first show in Montreal. We rehearsed the afternoon before the first show, and then the afternoon before the second show. For the show in Quebec City that we recorded, we rehearsed the morning of the show and the afternoon of the show, and then we played the show. I had to play the set list many times a day. Songs like Forgotten in Space are pretty demanding. It’s double kick all the way through, so it’s not really a matter of being tired physically. It’s more that it’s harder to focus at one point. In Quebec City, I made one mistake, but I don’t think people will hear it on the album.”

Don’t tell us. I don’t want people to know. The one song you have released so far was ‘End of Dormancy’, and the feeling is this enormous landscape. This great big feel, but you feel like the orchestra aren’t in the background. They’re at the forefront with you guys. It’s not so much that one is outweighing the other. Was that something you discussed or had in your mind? You didn’t want them just to be elevator music in the background while you played these songs. It needed to be a real coalition between the two of you.

“I think it had to be very balanced and organic. From what I’ve heard, it was the same in the rooms we played at, where it was very well blended. To achieve that, we had our soundman doing the Voivod sound and the soundman of the orchestra doing the sound of the orchestra. Each soundman fed the other with the sounds. At first, when we got the multitrack from the Quebec City show, it was a big mess. Every musician has a microphone, so everybody is leaking into each other. Plus, they all have monitors to hear Voivod. But I’m amazed at what Francis Perron, the engineer and mixer, did with it. You can really hear all 70 musicians of the orchestra and every member of Voivod. I’m pleased with it.”

v13 Cover Story #125 Voivod

It’s an incredible achievement to do it after having it as an idea for so long. Speaking of looking at it, are there any plans to put anything visual with it? I know the cost of doing similar live shows is astronomical these days, so it’s no surprise it will be put to us as audio only. But would there be any desire to put any visuals to it?

“We thought about documenting the events visually, but it’s really out of our range because of the union. Even just the audio is tens of thousands of dollars. But we had two singles out already, ‘Forgotten in Space’ and ‘The End of Dormancy’, and they had a great reaction. I think we’re going to recoup the investment. But to film, we can’t afford it. We are doing the experience again early next year in our hometown, where we formed in 1983, with the local orchestra. Maybe we can film it. It depends. It’s a celebration of the city’s 350th anniversary, the town we came from. Maybe with the celebration they can have money to film it. On our own, we unfortunately can’t afford it. But it’s still a dream to release this show on Blu-ray someday. That would be great.”

That would be incredible. Speaking of it being a one-off, you did the two shows and recorded the other. Would there be any desire, for example, if Wacken Festival came to you guys next year and said, “We’d love to have that set at Wacken,” or for us over here I think it would really fit in with Bloodstock. I think Bloodstock would be fantastic on that main stage with you guys and the orchestra. How possible is it to get 60 to 70 people in the orchestra?

“I’m sure it can be done with any type of orchestra. The way to do it would be what the Quebec Symphony Orchestra did. They rented the charts from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. That’s what we’re going to do in our hometown early next year. The local orchestra are going to rent the charts from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, so it’s the same exact show, probably with a different visual. We really hope Dina Gilbert, the conductor, will be with us early next year. If we have to play that show anywhere, it would have to be with a local orchestra, and hopefully with Dina, because we spent two years building the show where there are many cues and breaks. She looks at me, I look at her, and all that. With another conductor we’d have to start from scratch.

It would be difficult, but doable. I really like the Asia album Symphonia. They did that live in a beautiful amphitheatre in Bulgaria with a local orchestra, like a smaller one. I think that would be the way to do it. We definitely would not try what Emerson, Lake & Palmer did when they came to Montreal at the Olympic Stadium in the ‘70s with a symphony orchestra. They were touring with the symphony orchestra and halfway through the tour they went bankrupt. We wouldn’t try that.”

“We are doing the experience again early next year in our hometown, where we formed in 1983, with the local orchestra. It’s a celebration of the city’s 350th anniversary, the town we came from.”

There are so many amazing venues out there where this kind of thing would fit really well. Over here we’ve got the Royal Albert Hall, which I think would suit that really well. I think Devin Townsend recorded a record in Athens in quite a beautiful setting. There are no limits to what you could achieve. You would be interested if these festivals got in touch, but it might mean relocation for a while just to get it all laid down, right?

“No. You mean in terms of rehearsing?”

In terms of rehearsing and being with those individuals beforehand, or do you think you could just send them what they need and step in?

“We have the show down. On January 30th next year when we do it, we will have a rehearsal the day of the show. I’m sure everybody from the orchestra will be ready. These people are incredible. We really hope to take it on the road one day, in Prague, Budapest, anywhere. It’s definitely doable.”

I’ve got a bit of a nerdy question for you. You’ve been around the orchestra for all this time now. If there was one instrument you could have taken and learnt to be a part of that orchestra with the show, which instrument would you have chosen?

“Anything from the percussion section. I went to check it out and it was almost like Tropicana percussion. The big wooden xylophone, I don’t know the exact name, is the one I would love to play. I’m not sure if it’s a marimba or a xylophone, but the big wooden one really impressed me.”

Is there any influence you’ll take from the orchestra for the next record that you guys are recording? Is there anything you’ll take and put on?

“Absolutely. It’s a concept album with the Voivod character Korgull coming back. Because of the symphonic concerts, it’s going to sound even more like a sci-fi movie soundtrack. Because of the schedule, we do it bit by bit. When we come back from the European run at the end of the summer, we’re going to go back into the studio. We have some shows in Canada in September, some in the USA in October, and then we’re going to keep going with the studio album. It’s pretty experimental so far, but it might only be out late next year. We have so many projects in the works.

We also have a video game coming out called ‘Nuclear Warrior’. It’s based on the end of ‘80s, early ‘90s aesthetics. We’re all involved. I supplied a lot of low-res art like I used to do with my Commodore Amiga in the ‘80s. Chewy is involved in turning the Voivod music into 8-bit sounding metal. Snake is doing the voice for the main character. Rocky is testing the game, and he said it’s only 25% through and it’s insane. We also have the ‘We Are Connected’ documentary coming out. We just released a big book with Jeff Wagner on Radical Research called ‘Always Moving’. It’s more than 500 pages. There is always something in the works.”

Going back a second, with you saying the new record’s going to be a concept album, how much do you have to consider the fact that we’re currently going through this digital era of music? The concept record is better, in my opinion, and probably everybody’s opinion, listened to as intended, on a record, in one, from start to finish. With the digital era, people are fast-food picking what they want, consuming it, then moving on to the next. Is that something you have to consider when you go into the studio? The tracks need to build a bigger picture, but they also need to stand alone as their own individual thing.

“I think we really want to do something like Synchro Anarchy, where the whole album will fit onto one vinyl. The songs are not that long. They’re pretty intricate, but they’re about five and a half minutes or so, and they can definitely be listened to individually. We had a meeting at Rocky’s place where we built a template with eight chapters, so it’s eight songs, and Snake can go from there and have fun. We’re building everything together, and every once in a while we go into the studio and record three songs. But there are only eight. It’s in between many shows, where we have great momentum, and we are enjoying it right now.”

Voivod ‘Symphonique’ Album Artwork

That leads me onto another question I wanted to ask, which is something I discuss with one of my friends quite often when we’re listening to something so intricate and detailed. Where do you start with that kind of music? Is it a case that someone walks in with a book full of riffs and you go, “Okay, here are the riffs. Let’s put the concept with it,” or do you have the concept already made and build the music around that vision?

“It depends on the albums. When we have a full-on concept album like Dimension Hatröss or Phobos or the next one, we definitely have to find the storyline and split it in parts. If some characters are coming back, they will have their specific musical theme attached to them, and it can be rearranged, but you can recognise, oh, Korgull is coming. Since the next album will be a full-on concept, we started with a template and now we are trying to build the music around the storyline, but it’s morphing a lot.

We started a while ago, and the symphonic concerts totally directed us somewhere else. I think the next three songs will be different than the first three. For this specific album, we build everything as we move along, and I’m doing the same with the art. I like when I do one drawing for every song, and I picked that from progressive rock music, like Tarkus from ELP. It’s fun because the people listening to the album can follow the story in a way by looking at the artwork. As Snake is moving along with lyrics, I’m trying to get ahead with the artwork as well so I’m not stuck at the very end going crazy doing the booklet.”

Will this album be accompanied by a book that people can go along with your art and the album? That’s a really interesting idea.

“I want to do one drawing for every song that will be printed beside the lyrics of every song. I do that quite often, and I’ve always tried to do it, but sometimes I couldn’t afford it or didn’t have the time. I did the first four album covers with acrylic painting, but I didn’t have any notion because I studied science at university. That’s why, 40 years ago, I switched to digital art to accelerate the process.

I’m always on the road or in the studio somewhere, so it’s hard without an iPad and a digital pen these days. The only way I can achieve one drawing for every song, because I tend to put a lot of detail in, is with digital art. But when I’m on the road, every night I draw with a real pen on a real piece of paper and post it online. I still love the feel. Usually it’s the notepad at the hotel with the pen that comes with it. It can be blue, it can be red, and I think it’s great. I do that a lot as well.”

Are those drawings you’ve done over the years kept, and would there ever be an idea of releasing them in one book, like the sketches and doodles?

“That’s actually my next book. It’s about the road art. I have thousands of them, so I can’t print all of them for now, but I’ll start with my favourite ones. There are many. Sometimes they’re more like doodles done when I’m too tired after the show. Sometimes they’re pretty detailed. I’m working on that.”

We also have a video game coming out called Nuclear Warrior. It’s based on the end of ‘80s, early ‘90s aesthetics. We’re all involved.

Or a gallery exhibition maybe. I think the metal community would turn out for that definitely. I know Bloodstock Festival has a gallery inside the festival that you can go in. I think something like that would work. I think I’m really plugging for you guys to get on Bloodstock for next year with that orchestra. That would be fantastic.

“We played Bloodstock before. It was amazing. I’ve done exhibitions at galleries connected to bars or at festivals like Roadburn in Holland and Mystic Fest in Poland. I did a big one there. It’s always fun.”

Like we were saying in the beginning, you guys are coming over here soon for a little tour. What can we expect from that tour? Have you got the set lists worked out?

“We have rehearsed it. We’ve refreshed the set list a lot, so there are many songs that we haven’t played in decades. It’s great for us too. We are doing a run with Midnight, our friend, and that’s pretty old school. We have a couple of set lists that we will alternate. Many people are following us in England as well. We have a festival set list, and for all the club shows we have a few set lists that we fool around with. There are a few songs that we haven’t played in a long while.”

Just to finish off, are we going to get any of the new songs, or are they too new at this present moment?

“They’re too new. I don’t think Snake is 100% satisfied with the melodies and lyrics yet. It’s the beginning of the process, but it’s pretty promising. So far, it’s 100% Voivodian, that’s for sure.”