Voivod & Abusive concert report, 03/08/2026

Making up for lost time. 

I’ve always had a vested interest in my hobbies and obsessions being as far removed from consumerism as possible. Obviously, in the big 26, a time where capitalism’s tendrils have infiltrated every aspect of your waking (and perhaps also sleeping) life, it’s nigh-on impossible to avoid it in the things you enjoy. Everything needs to be commodified and turned into an excuse to push you towards rampant consumption and expenditure, the big festival lineups that show up across the world are very much an indication of that, even when it comes to more underground fare. Big events, stacked with bands that people are sure to want to catch live, because “How could I possibly miss out on this lineup?”, and obviously spend money on accommodation, travel expenses, and merchandise. Concert tourism. Furthermore, festivals (and bigger shows in general) stifle the connection between artist and audience, more often than not trading it for a greater spectacle.

Due to that, I’ve gradually restricted myself to shows at local venues for the most part, only keeping a few festivals on my theoretical bucket list, and even those I am not quite itching to attend (a lot of the Deathfests remain a distant dream, their being abroad and the rapid disappearance of tickets keeps me from splurging on them). Taking on a “quality over quantity” approach to things, I find myself attending only a small handful every few months, and that’s if my real-life schedule even allows for it to begin with. Nevertheless, pickiness does pay off, and I find myself far more pleased with the experiences I tend to have, especially since I don’t go to shows with whose bands I’m wholly unfamiliar with for the most part now, as was the case with seeing Voivod last week (who said I don’t strike while the iron’s hot?).

Oddly enough, Voivod’s been the band I’ve caught live the most since I started seeing bands live, this being the third time since their first visit to Thessaloniki all the way back in 2019. Since then, despite how much my tastes might fluctuate, I always find myself returning to their mindbending melange of progressive and

thrash metal, perhaps one of the few groups that actually call for the “genre-agnostic” descriptor, even at this point in their career. The fact that they still show up at small clubs and play their hearts out like they’re headlining festivals is merely icing on the cake, and I’d be a fool not to pay the price of admission for what has thus far been a consistently lovely experience.

But this is the part where I must pull a fast one and admit that things were quite different this time around, since Snake wasn’t on vocal duties. In his place was E-Force, the band’s frontman during the mid-to-late 90s. It’s an era that I’ve come to dig quite a bit more than what I did during my first contact with the band’s discography. Sure, groove metal is the order of the day, but there remains a solid amount of thudding thrash in it all, and Piggy’s riffing takes on an even colder and industrial sound that seems like a natural extension of what the band was doing on Dimension Hätross, especially on 1997’s Phobos. Due to this rather sudden change in vocalists, the setlist was also altered accordingly, featuring some deep cuts across the band’s earlier catalogue alongside the usual suspects, in addition to “Nanoman” and “Rise” off the E-Force albums, the latter kicking off their set in crushing fashion. As for the former, while there’s a slew of other songs I’d pick off Negatron over it - namely “Reality?”, that one’s a scorcher -, but it nevertheless translated well live, as do most groovy songs.

As for the rest of the setlist, it was shockingly balanced, with each album from the band’s 1983-1997 run getting a song’s worth of representation, some obvious, like the thudding “Tribal Convictions”, which you really can’t go without at a Voivod show, and some less so, such as “Ripping Headaches”, a personal favourite of

mine off the oft overlooked Rrröööaaarrr. It should come as no surprise that this setlist differs quite a bit from what the band was playing with Snake up to that point (I do wish I got to hear “Korgull the Exterminator”), given that they had to accommodate for E-Force’s different vocal style, which meshed nicely with what was played, his harsher and scratchier timbre a great fit for more direct and vicious songs in the vein of “Nuclear War” and “Ravenous Medicine”, although he performed admirably on the anthemic “Fix My Heart”, a  [sic] personal favourite of his. 

An unexpected, and slightly amusing detail in all this was the presence of a tablet on a little tripod, which he used to read off the lyrics during the set, a byproduct of his being called upon suddenly to undertake vocal duties and help the band continue the tour. I have to give it to him, he didn’t miss a beat all things considered, not to mention his voice held out for the entire set, even by the end, where the whole crowd was screaming along to “Voivod”, he was giving it his all. Really, the band was firing on all cylinders, Away beating his drums with intensity expected of drummers half his age, whereas Chewy and Rocky held the fort down and made the stage feel larger than life with how much they ran around. Three perfect performances in a row, no notes.

That being said, the band’s usage of AI-generated visuals did leave a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve always been a strident opponent of its use in the arts, and seeing

Voivod using them in their current tour through their socials depressed me a little. I won’t be going into a screed as to why that’s the case, anyone who knows what dangers AI holds for the arts is well-aware of the talking points I’d be going through, and their significance. I guess there’s some consolation to be had at the fact that the Away fed his own artwork to whichever image/video generating software they used. Damn shame whichever way you look at it.

Now, a careful reader might’ve noticed that I listed Abusive at the title of this article, and doubtless they’d be wondering why I haven’t talked about them yet. The fact of the matter is that they are one of the most sauceless thrash bands I’ve heard in my life, the epitome of “Shit, we couldn’t find a proper opening act before the headliner, quick, page the first guy that comes to mind”. At least Exarsis, who opened back in 2022 had some character to speak of in the vocal histrionics presented. Here though? It’s just fast (duh) thrash with the occasional crossover undercurrent, owing to the peppy drumming. It gets you nodding when it's fast, but even the most mediocre thrashers can muster that at least once per album.

Seriously though, what could one possibly expect at the mention of song titles such as “Preacher of Lies”, “Deranged Mind Manipulation”, “Sick Influencer”, and “Dogmatic War”? They all sound like thrash metal madlibs, and to be perfectly transparent with you, these ones are. 3 of the 4 titles presented are just that, created by yours truly. I’ll let you figure out which one’s the outlier.

Honestly, barring an opener who did little but make me go home later on a weekday (what is it with this year and weekday shows?), I had a blast catching Voivod again, and this time with a crowd that was far worthier of their stature within metal history. Not only was the venue almost at capacity, they brought their A-game too. Who would’ve thought I’d be enjoying a band whom I had laid eyes upon twice already in the past, let alone be surprised by them? Even though I’ve seen them so many times now, it’s impossible to even think I wouldn’t seize the opportunity to see them in the future again, wherever that might be.