Voivod

VOIVOD frontman Denis "Snake" Belanger has issued the following update:

"Here's my news: Doing well, relaxing, still doing a lot of interviews. A few weeks ago I went to our hometown Jonquiere to see my parents. While I was there I did a full day of promotion covering the whole Morgoth area Saguenay, Lac St-Jean. Then my girlfriend and I and a bunch of friends went camping for a couple of days. It was great! Shooting fireworks in the sky by the lake, cooking hotdogs on the open fire, and maybe a few beers. Great outdoor hang-overlso.

"This is a good story. At Piggy's funeral last year, I brought my guitar for people to sign it, then we went to the river and tried to burn it (didn't work) to finally throw the guitar off the bridge as a symbolic memoriam to Piggy... Remember? Well, apparently three months ago, a teacher who lives in Chicoutimi (a few miles down the river) found the guitar. Looking at it, he didn't know what this was all about. All the signatures, the burn marks, and after a full winter, I guess the guitar was in pretty bad shape. So he kept it, and brought it to school wondering if students could possibly explain the wrecked guitar. One metal dude raised his hand and said I know what it is. It's a tribute to Piggy, VOIVOD's guitar player who died last year. The class went 'Ahhh!' I hope the guy still has it. It's certainly a keeper."

"Snake [vocalist Denis 'Snake' Belanger] and I recently completed a whirlwind press trip of six countries arranged by our Euro label Nuclear Blast. We just got back from hanging out with Jason [Newsted, VOIVOD/ex-METALLICA bassist] in L.A. where The End Records held a CD release party July 24 at the Rok Bar. We also jammed one night at Jason's place! He has recently produced an incredible amount of very detailed paintings. I must say that I was really impressed with his artwork. We then headed back to Montreal for a special CBC Radio 2 hour broadcast. We had some calls from Max from SOULFLY and Andreas from SEPULTURA, then were taken to a CBC soundstage where a string quartet performed a VOIVOD medley orchestrated by our friend Ram. Incredible! Right after we held our Montreal release party and celebrated three years of hard work finally immortalized on CD. Thank you again, Piggy!

"As for now, I am putting together more art and Iron Gang demos for the Sanctuary re-release of the Noise catalogue. Also, The End will re-release 'Angel Rat' and 'The Outer Limits'. 'DVOD-2', featuring the power trio years is under construction, to come out soon. My art book is finished and will also be released soon on Troubleman Unlimited. Look for our new merch store at Bandmerch.com where we will also be adding prints of my art.

"In other news we were asked by the makers of the Guitar Hero game if we would let them use a song for GH2, so after some thought we could see no wrong in having two million kids learn Piggy's riff on a Playstation!"

"Thanks to everyone who continues to work on and support our music."