It must be said from the outset, Morgöth Tales can be listened to in one go, so that we do not have the impression of dealing with a chronological compilation of songs taken from the varied discography that marked the first 20 years of the group from Jonquière. The sound bill has something to do with it, of course, but the choice of parts, handpicked, was also made accordingly.

We thus manage to integrate brave thrash metal pieces like Thrashing Rage and Killing Technology, but also more progressive pieces like Macrosolutions to Megaproblems and Nuage fractal, or even a rock fire cut from a block like Fix My Heart. We even called on former collaborators Jason Newsted and Eric Forrest, who joined their former friends in the studio to re-record Rebel Robot and Rise respectively – E-Force sings for the occasion in duet with Denis “Snake” Bélanger.

The exercise also allowed the band to dust off the very first song they recorded, Condemned to the Gallows, which was made in 1983 for Metal Massacre V, a compilation album by artists who were in the Metal Blade stable at the time.

As for the novelty Morgöth Tales, a lesson in aggressive math-rock, it once again testifies to the renewed dynamism of the quartet which, it should be remembered, won the Juno for best metal album of the year in Canada last March thanks to the exceptional Synchro Anarchy. As a bonus, we are also entitled to a surprise at the end of the album, Voivod going there with a heartfelt tip to Johnny Lydon by delivering an interpretation inspired by Home, from Public Image Limited, the group of the former Sex Pistol.

Finally, Morgöth Tales is probably also a way for guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain to make his own pieces originally performed and composed by the late Denis “Piggy” D’Amour. Not that the first suffers from the comparison with the second – we are talking here about two virtuosos of the six-string – but the exercise allows Chewy to rise in all respect to the level of the legend of Piggy.