“We never thought of ourselves as pioneers. But we grew up in a parallel universe to our peers”: Voivod weren’t trying to invent prog metal – they were just trying to be like Van der Graaf Generator

A press shot of Voivod in their early days.

Voivod started out as naïve young noiseniks, but within four albums they’d become pioneers of the progressive metal genre. In 2017 drummer Away reflected on the rapid development demonstrated on their first four albums, released from 1984 to 1988.

The secret’s out now. Voivod drummer Michel ‘Away’ Langevin reveals: “Van der Graaf Generator are my favourite progressive band.” But as he explains, it’s not that surprising at all.