ALBUM REVIEW: Symphonique – Voïvod
On 4th June 2025, VOÏVOD joined forces with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Théâtre in Québec City, Canada to perform Symphonique, which couples VOÏVOD‘s futuristic and progressive space-age thrash metal anthems with the sonic force of a full orchestra. Now, exactly 366 days after this unique collaboration happened, the resulting concert is now released for fans to immerse themselves in as Symphonique.
Other metal bands have utilised the use of an orchestra to add an extra dimension to their music, with METALLICA being the most famous example on S&M with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, but also the likes of CRADLE OF FILTH who worked with the Budapest Film Orchestra on their album Damnation And A Day, PARADISE LOST with the Orchestra Of State Opera Plovdiv and the Rodna Pesen Choir to celebrate the bands twenty fifth anniversary, and ENTOMBED who performed the classic Clandestine album with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and the results were impressive.
Enter VOÏVOD and Symphonique, and the stakes are raise to an unprecedented level. This is a band whose forward thinking music has dazzled listeners for the past four decades and with Symphonique, the orchestra that they play with adds an extra layer of bombastic presence to their songs and the results are nothing short of truly spectacular.
Symphonique is a twelve track setlist that takes in VOÏVOD’s greatest hits and, with the added presence of the orchestra, takes things to another level. Now, it has to be said that the songs of VOÏVOD, both live and on record, are more or less untouchable, but the Quebec Symphony Orchestra add dramatic tension to the extreme and an epic vibe throughout. Symphonique has to be listened to as a whole to get the full experience and an experience is the only way to describe it. This is forward thinking metal, the way VOÏVOD have always done but taken to an even more celestial level.
Highlights abound though, with a swashbuckling rendition of Holographic Thinking, and a brilliant The Unknown Knows with its scintillating use of the organ, a dynamic and triumphant The End Of Dormancy with the striking vocals of Snake taking centre stage as they soar to the top of the venue. The added dimensions to Nuclear War still retain its original heavy nature and an anthemic Tribal Convictions all sound phenomenal before a stunning Astronomy Dominie brings things to a perfect close.
This idea of melding high octane metal with the multi faceted sonics of an orchestra may have been executed before but VOÏVOD have mastered it with Symphonique and it plays like a Broadway version of a science-fiction play, it is on a War Of The Worlds scale with a cinematic execution. Snake, Chewy, Rocky and Away have done themselves proud and add another level to the status of Symphonique, and kudos must also go to the Quebec Symphony Orchestra for this monstrous collaboration.
This is heavy music at its most epic and adventurous and who better to do it than VOÏVOD. Symphonique is not only VOÏVOD as you have never heard them before but how you have always wanted to hear them, as their songs take different forms here in the same forward thinking manner as the band’s music always has.
Rating: 9/10
Symphonique is out now via Century Media Records.
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