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I was not a fan of Voïvod back in the '80s, but they've lasted nearly 40 years and have had their influence on metal. Since a few of their early albums have not been reviewed here at The Metal Crypt until now, I decided to revisit them by taking a crack at their third album, 1987's Killing Technology.

I was vaguely familiar with the song "This Is Not an Exercise" because it was part of the intro to my college metal show for several years (the end where Snake yells the song title), probably at the insistence of my co-host. It fit what we were going for. Anyway, Killing Technology is full of barely contained punk/thrash metal that along with the angsty, thin shouting and the overall chaotic playing had me thinking of early Suicidal Tendencies, particularly on the title track and "Too Scared to Scream" (a song not on the Noise Records version but present, along with "Cockroaches," on the Combat CD release). Voïvod's style at this point in their career was European, like Kreator or Sodom, where aggression and speed were more important than the precision and tight riffing of US thrash. This style didn't get it done for me back in the '80s and it still doesn't today. It sounds too much like Suicidal or Sex Pistols played with more speed and abandon, and I just can't grab ahold of anything. I will admit, "This Is Not an Exercise" IS a cool song, especially the ending, so cheers to my old radio co-host, he hit the nail on the head.

Personally, I find this album amateurish and repetitive, but I get why fans of the band think otherwise. It was different from most of the metal that was readily available and that gave it an "underground" cache, in the way Hellhammer and early Bathory were so bad they were good. Yet Voïvod went into a more progressive and musical direction with their next couple of albums, so the approach on Killing Technology had clearly run its course and the band went in an entirely new direction after its release.