Montreal's Voivod Prep New Album Featuring Late Guitarist

Montreal metal icons Voivod might not be able to spell in French too well, but it's the thought that counts by titling their 14th album Katorz.

The LP is the band's first for The End Records and the first they've recorded since co-founding guitarist Denis D'Amour (a.k.a. Piggy) died last August of colon cancer.

"It came about in unfortunate circumstances, but the result is mind-blowing," drummer Michel "Away" Langevin told Billboard.com. "Right before his departure, Denis explained to me that he had recorded all the tracks that we had been working on with [bassist] Jason [Newsted] and [vocalist] Snake [Belanger] for the past two years.

"He had recorded that on his laptop with Pro Tools and, even though he would have preferred to redo the whole thing in a real studio, there was a chance that we could use the tracks. We built the album based on the guitar tracks, which was difficult, because normally we go the other way around. We start with the drums and then add stuff on top. But it sounds amazing."

The artwork for the 10-track album will include Piggy's original handwriting from the demo CD he made for the record.

Due to the passing of D'Amour, the band don't intend to tour in support of the album following its expected June release, but Langevin said they're planning to release another album featuring more material from guitar parts that D'Amour had previously laid down. Thirteen songs are expected to be completed and released later this year, with another 25 set to see daylight sometime in the future.

They're also planning a follow-up to 2005's D-V-O-D 1 archival live DVD.

Foo Fighter Dave Grohl is a huge fan of the sci-fi-loving band and even posted a Voivod sticker on a chair in his studio for inspiration while recording songs for his side project, Probot. Snake contributed a song to Probot's debut.