Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Macrosolutions to Megaproblems” by Voivod:

One of the real joys of the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona on the last weekend of May was seeing and hearing Canadian thrash-metal legends Voivod, who played an intense and fun set, and looked like they were having a ball doing it. They played hard, and fast, and the music was great, but they also presented themselves as a bunch of guys who can’t quite believe they get to play in the best band in the world.  The secret to every great band is that it really is the best band in the world, to the people in it.  With Voivod, that totally shone through.  I’ve discovered since the festival that not as many people have heard of Voivod as I thought–even some metal fans I know.  This surprised me, because Voivod is a band that I always read about and heard bands like Metallica and Slayer talking about when I was a kid.  In their time, and their style, they were innovators, playing fast and tight with time signature shifts and “jazz” chords that made them seem a little bit prog, and set them apart from a lot of other bands.  “Macrosolutions to Megaproblems” is from the 1988 album Dimension Hatröss, an album which, along with Rrröööaaarrr from 1986, represents a significant contribution to the superfluous umlaut canon.