VOIVOD – Symphonique (Album Review)

It’s an intergalactic endeavor

The marriage of metal and symphonic music has come a long way since Celtic Frost’s Into The Pandemonium set the blueprint that would give rise to an entire mass movement in the late 90s. Many might point to the famed 1999 collaboration of Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra known affectionately as S&M as the pinnacle of this phenomenon in the public’s consciousness, though it would still be the tip of a gargantuan ice berg that is continually seeming new acts and seasoned veterans alike getting in on the action.

Case in point, French Canadian thrash metal innovators turned progressive metal trailblazers Voivod, who have struck pure sonic pay dirt with their own take on mixing their avant-garde take on riff-driven aggression to the classical concert hall. Interestingly enough, the brilliant synchronicity established between the quartet and the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, aptly titled Symphonique, offers up a sonic tapestry of cinematic brilliance that runs mostly parallel to the stylistic character of what Celtic Frost accomplished nearly 40 years prior, if not functions as the logical conclusion of it.

The selection of material adapted for this endeavor from Voivod’s extensive catalog touches upon each of their various incarnations, going all the way back to their 1984 thrash debut War And Pain, itself a far cry from where their sound would be even before the conclusion of the same decade. Yet the entire 72-minute performance is an exercise in pure cohesion and seamless transitions from one auditory chapter to the next, almost as if the band had been gradually composing a soundtrack for the same elaborate space drama that has finally seen its premiere after more than 40 years.

It speaks to a band that was pushing the envelope from the very beginning, well before 1989’s Nothingface saw them progressing to the point of finding themselves in a different stylistic galaxy, and the combined efforts of founding members Snake and Away with that of newer fellow travelers Chewy and Rocky reveal a band that works as a singular, precision-based unit even while in the midst of a sea of symphonic add-ons.

The integration of a full symphonic orchestra into the equation is no mere peripheral gimmick, but a highly consequential hybridization of color and timbre that takes the original versions of each song and morphs them into something far more epic in scope. The dense layers of singing strings and woodwinds, thunderous percussion, and blaring brass do not fight with Chewy’s thrashing riffs or Away’s double-kick happy drumming for prominence, but wrap around them like a magical cloak and bring the implicit science fiction and philosophical themes behind Snake’s gruff vocalizations into full focus.

Whether it be the transitional progressive thrashing power of offerings off 1988’s Dimension Haltross like the opening fanfare of “Experiment” and the speeding fury of “Cosmic Drama”, or the more old school mid-80s aggression of “Nuclear War” off the debut and “Forgotten Space” off of 1987’s Killing Technology, the arrangement acts as one world-conquering juggernaut, though it is curious to note that the latter two early era anthems see the orchestra accenting the impact of the riffs like a collective second guitarist much of the time, while the atmosphere of the more progressive material has a denser and more cosmic demeanor.

In much the same fashion as the original studio run of this outfit in the 80s would suggest, the most overtly ambitious arrangements of this performance have been reserved for the material off of their revolutionary stylistic pivot, Nothingface. Be it the melodically consonant and rhythmically multifaceted up-tempo triumph of “The Unknown Knows” or the spacey and atmospherically rich mini-epic entry “Into My Hypercube”, the latter being one of bassist Rocky’s moments to step up to the foreground, the orchestral element functions far less as a bolstering element and more as a partner in weaving a truly spellbinding collection of otherworldly tales.

By the same token, the dissonant mishmash entry “Pre-Ignition” and Voivod’s signature cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” really underscore the unique, avant-garde character of where this band was pushing things at around the same time that Dream Theater and Fates Warning were starting to make waves. This is reflected in the few newer songs to make this performance like the long-winded intergalactic slough “The End Of Dormancy” and the technically charged fit of interstellar chaos “Holographic Thinking”, which definitely go the furthest in exploiting the orchestra’s sonic possibilities while also seeing the core band at their more virtuosic.

Symphonique is far from a typical live album, so much so that one might almost think it a collection of studio re-recordings were it not for the intermittent crowd sounds. It is built upon tight, precision-based, and powerful performances that reveal a passion for the craft that is still a rarity even as the ranks of progressive metal have continued to swell, largely in response to the very same astounding compositional feats that broke the mold decades ago and have since found their way to this present form.

The experience that it offers is, if nothing else, an immersive one that will surely conjure up grand battle scenes among the stars that parallel every feat of Sci-Fi cinema and television since the days of the original Star Trek series. Some live albums can transport the listener directly into the concert hall where the performance originally occurred, but Symphonique is the sort that will take them to a place beyond the confines of this world.

Release Date: June 5th, 2026
Record Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Progressive Metal

Musicians:

• Snake / Vocals
• Away / Drums
• Rocky / Bass
• Chewy / Guitars

Symphonique Track-list:

1. Experiment (Symphonique Live)
2. Holographic Thinking (Symphonique Live)
3. The Unknown Knows (Symphonique Live)
4. The End of Dormancy (Symphonique Live)
5. Into My Hypercube (Symphonique Live)
6. Forgotten in Space (Symphonique Live)
7. Cosmic Drama (Symphonique Live)
8. Pre-Ignition (Symphonique Live)
9. Nuclear War (Symphonique Live)
10. Fall (Symphonique Live)
11. Tribal Convictions (Symphonique Live)
12. Astronomy Domine (Symphonique Live) (Pink Floyd Cover)

Order the album here.