Voivod, Kreator Are Solid, But Not Spectacular

Common perception has led many heavy music fans to believe there's a thrash metal resurgence going on right now. But to acts like Montreal's Voivod and German powerhouse Kreator, there's no such thing. Thrash has always been alive and well, thank you very much.

According to the impressive array of warm bodies ready to rev up their toxic waltzes inside The Opera House, Torontonians agree. This ample crowd was unusual for a Tuesday evening, especially considering many in the audience were closer to incontinence pads than being able to identify individual Jonas Brothers members.

Jumping into their set with haste, progressive weirdoes Voivod took the stage at an ungodly early hour, plugging away at a list comprised purely of pre-1990 material (Nothingface and earlier).

Still, the quartet proved how even after a barrage of internal ups-and-downs, they've prevailed for a reason: their songs are simply stunning. From the hypnotic rhythm of "Tribal Convictions" through "Missing Sequences" and closer "Astronomy Domine," Voivod were seamless.

That said, their sound was little more than thumping kick drums pushing everything else to the background and movement was negligible, save vocalist Denis "Snake" Bélanger doing his laid-back best to instigate the crowd.

Special mention to new guitarist Dan Mongrain (also of Martyr), though, who is a fine surrogate for late founder Denis "Piggy" D'Amour. While they played admirably, one got the sensation that Voivod were content with the lack of responsibility being an opener provides.

Striking a bit more fear and fire into the audience, genre stalwarts Kreator were more aggressive in their campaign for metallic overload. Touring in support of latest release Hordes Of Chaos, the outfit unleashed an intense barrage of blinding spotlights, asphyxiating smoke, hammering tempos and vicious spirit. Performing a wide array of tunes from their lengthy career, tracks such as "Enemy Of God," "Flag Of Hate," "Hordes Of Chaos," "Extreme Aggression" and the inevitable "Tormentor" were played tightly and raucously applauded.

Overall, however, while both Kreator and Voivod proved mighty and entirely relevant, they both felt like another blast of the exact same thing. While that's splitting hairs given both bands are infinitely better than the vast majority of their colleagues, there was something missing from a night boasting such talent — complacency.

These two bands need to inspire themselves in a live setting lest they stumble with a band's greatest killer: predictability.