VOIVOD's AWAY on rising tour costs: “It's really hard to justify going on the road sometimes”
10-06-2026
In a new interview with Bill Bailey of Today’s Boondoggle Podcast, drummer Michel “Away” Langevin of Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD spoke about how skyrocketing fuel prices as a result of U.S. military action in Iran have affected his band’s ability to make ends meet on the road. He said: “Man, it’s really hard to justify going on the road sometimes. Post-pandemic — as soon as we started to tour internationally after COVID, we realized everything was more expensive. Everybody was trying to catch up. And so hotels, tour bus, even the gas and even the crew was more expensive because they were trying to catch up from two years of doing nothing. And now, with the war in Iran and the gas prices going crazy, we planned a budget for what’s coming up this summer, but I’m not exactly sure the numbers are gonna match in the end. So it’s always a scary experience. Thank God the people into VOIVOD are really loyal, and they show up at the shows. And not only that, but they buy a lot of merch. And so it always saves the tours that we do these days — always. We just did a stretch in USA, and just the first show we sold so much merch we had to order more. So, yeah, it’s a good thing.”
VOIVOD‘s new album, “Symphonique“, a special live collaboration with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra (Orchestre Symphonique De Québec),was made available on June 5, 2026 worldwide via Century Media Records. “Symphonique”, which functions like an epic piece of cinema, showcases VOIVOD‘s pioneering futuristic metal with the strains of a symphony orchestra, and features a carefully curated VOIVOD best-of setlist composed of 12 songs across 73 minutes, recorded live on June 4, 2025, at the Grand Théâtre in Québec City, Canada.
VOIVOD previously played two shows with the Orchestre Symphonique De Montréal on January 29, 2025 and January 30, 2025 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
VOIVOD European tour dates:
June 04 – Stykkishólmur (Iceland) – Satan FestJune 06 – Emmen (The Netherlands) – PitfestJune 08 – London (UK) – The Underworld *June 09 – Southampton (UK) – The 1865 *
June 10 – Bristol (UK) – Thekla *
June 11 – Nottingham (UK) – Rescue Rooms *
June 12 – Manchester (UK) – Rebellion *
June 13 – Glasgow (UK) – Slay *
June 15 – Belfast (UK) – Limelight 2 *
June 16 – Dublin (Ireland) – Whelans *
June 17 – Limerick (Ireland) – Dolans Warehouse *
June 19 – Vitoria-Gastiez (Spain) – Azkena Rock Fest
July 10 – Milan (Italy) – Frantic Fest Warm-Up
July 11 – Cagliari (Italy) – Cueva Rock
July 13 – Zagreb (Croatia) – Vintage Industrial
July 14 – Budapest (Hungary) – Analog Music Hall
July 15 – Vienna (Austria) – Arena
July 16 – Vizovice (Czech Republic) – Masters of Rock Fest
July 18 – Leoben (Austria) – Area 53 Fest
July 20 – Salzburg (Austria) – Rockhouse
July 21 – Munich (Germany) – Feierwerk
July 22 – Weinheim (Germany) – Cafe Central
July 23 – Essen (Germany) – Turock
July 25 – Brande-Hörnerkirchen (Germany) – Headbangers Open Air Fest
July 27 – Gdańsk (Poland) – Drizzly Grizzly
July 28 – Warsaw (Poland) – Hydrozagadka
July 29 – Bratislava (Slovakia) – Randal Club
July 30 – Belgrade (Serbia) – Zappa Barka
July 31 – Brasov (Romania) – Rockstadt Extreme Fest
Aug. 02 – Sofia (Bulgaria) – Mixtape 5
Aug. 03 – Thessaloniki (Greece) – Eightball Club
Aug. 04 – Athens (Greece) – Gazarte Ground Stage
Aug. 07 – Ancora (Portugal) – Sonic Blast Fest
Aug. 09 – Kortrijk (Belgium) – Alcatraz Fest
Aug. 10 – Trier (Germany) – Mergener Hof
Aug. 11 – Aarau (Switzerland) – Kiff
Aug. 14 – Francavilla Al Mare (Italy) – Frantic Fest
Aug. 16 – Carhaix (France) – Motocultor Fest
* headline show with MIDNIGHT and CRYPTOSIS
VOIVOD‘s upcoming live album was recorded during a performance with the Orchestre Symphonique De Québec, conducted by Dina Gilbert, on June 4, 2025 at Grand Théâtre de Québec in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.
The setlist for the show was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:
01. Experiment
02. Holographic Thinking
03. The Unknown Knows
04. The End Of Dormancy
05. Into My Hypercube
06. Forgotten In Space
07. Cosmic Drama
08. Pre-Ignition
09. Nuclear War
10. Fall
11. Tribal Convictions
12. Astronomy Domine (PINK FLOYD cover)
Late last month, VOIVOD drummer Michel “Away” Langevin told Le Soleil about the Quebec City performance: “The problem with making a record is that you have to pay a lot of royalties, because there are a lot of musicians and it costs a fortune. However, we’re working on recording the Quebec City show and eventually releasing it on vinyl or CD. We really want to do that.”
According to Langevin, there are no plans to release a professionally filmed video of the concert. “A DVD costs much, much more, so we forgot about that idea and focused on the audio,” he said. “We haven’t yet decided to turn this performance into a live album, but we’re working very hard on this major project.”
VOIVOD previously played two shows with the Orchestre Symphonique De Montréal on January 29 and January 30 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Regarding how the collaboration with the Orchestre Symphonique De Montréal came about, Langevin told The Metal Voice in a December 2024 interview: “Oh my God, I think we’ve been dreaming about that forever. But it came through a strange chain of circumstances, where I did an interview for the magazine L’Itinéraire, for homeless people selling magazines on the street, and then I did an interview with one of the journalists for the magazine, and it ended up being published online by La Presse. And then the people directing the orchestra, the organization, they were made aware of that by one of the musicians from the orchestra, which is a metal dude and he’s a fan.”
VOIVOD celebrated 40 eventful years of existence in 2023 with a special anniversary studio album titled “Morgöth Tales”, which was released on July 21. 2023 via Century Media Records. The LP’s last released single is “Fix My Heart (2023 Version)”, accompanied by a video directed by Above The Void.
Watch “Fix My Heart (2023 Version)” below.
VOIVOD guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain comments on the new single: “It’s always the highlight of our live show when the audience claps with big smiles all round. To me it’s about keeping hope and focus towards a better future, moving on, leaving the past behind and exploring new worlds within. ‘I’m not afraid to live’.”
Once more recorded and mixed by Francis Perron at RadicArt Studio, mastered by Maor Appelbaum and produced by VOIVOD, “Morgöth Tales” includes fresh studio re-recordings by the band’s current lineup of nine especially selected, not-so-obvious picks from the band’s hyper-classy and extremely diverse back catalogue (between 1984 and 2003) as well as a brand-new song and the album’s title track, “Morgöth Tales”.
VOIVOD drummer Michel “Away” Langevin commented: “‘Morgöth Tales’ covers 40 years of space exploration.
“It was really exciting for us to revisit a more obscure part of the VOIVOD catalogue, from thrash-punk to prog-metal.
“The title track is a new song, which we started writing on the tour bus and hotels during the OPETH European tour in November/December 2022. It has the vibe of the experimental music we are doing nowadays, with a new twist I think. We also had the great thrill of getting Eric (Forrest) and Jason (Newsted) involved on this album.
“I hope you’ll dig it. Chewy, Rocky, Snake and I certainly had a blast recording it. All aboard and ready for take-off!”
“Morgöth Tales” track listing:
01. Condemned To The Gallows(2023 Version) (originally on “Metal Massacre V” compilation, 1984)
02. Thrashing Rage (2023 Version) (originally on “Rrröööaaarrr”, 1986)
03. Killing Technology (2023 Version) (originally on “Killing Technology”, 1987)
04. Macrosolutions To Megaproblems (2023 Version) (originally on “Dimension Hatröss”, 1988)
05. Pre-Ignition (2023 Version) (originally on “Nothingface”, 1989)
06. Nuage Fractal (2023 Version) (originally on “Angel Rat”, 1991)
07. Fix My Heart (2023 Version) (originally on “The Outer Limits”, 1993)
08. Rise (2023 Version, feat. Eric Forrest) (originally on “Phobos”, 1997)
09. Rebel Robot (2023 Version, feat. Jason Newsted) (originally on “Voivod”, 2003)
10. Morgöth Tales (New Song)
Snake previously spoke about “Morgöth Tales” in a recent interview with Agoraphobic News. He said: “It was a really fun thing to do. It was like a time capsule, going back in time to revisit these old songs, especially one in particular, which was first song we ever recorded (‘Condemned To The Gallows’); that was for ‘Metal Massacre V’ (1984) on Metal Blade Records back in the day, before our first album. And the funny thing about it was there was no lyric sheet in the compilation itself. It was us, including many other bands. And the way it was recorded, it was really hard to figure out the lyrics; I couldn’t remember what I was singing. So we’re looking everywhere on the Internet, if someone has it or whatever. And it was nowhere to be found. And then I said to myself, ‘Maybe mom has it in the attic somewhere.’ And then I called my sister: ‘Can you check at mom’s place? Maybe she put it somewhere.’ And she went, and my mom classified — everything is in order with mom. And she was, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I have it. File number six.’ And then she pulls out the only copy of the lyrics in the world of that song.’ And we were, like, ‘Yeah!’ ‘Cause music for the song was already recorded. And we were, like, ‘Oh my God. What are we gonna do?'”
Circling back to the upcoming 40th-anniversary album, Snake said that it will contain a song “not from every album, but mostly the period from ‘Rrröööaaarrr’, ‘Killing Technology’, ‘Dimension Hatröss’, ‘Nothingface’; we revisit one song from each album. And it’s in a chronological order. So it’s very fun. It was fun to do.”
He added: “It was really — like I said — like a time capsule, going back. And I’m trying to sing these songs like I used to.”
VOIVOD‘s 15th studio album, “Synchro Anarchy”, was released in February 2022 via Century Media Records. The follow-up to 2018’s “The Wake” was produced by Francis Perron at RadicArt Studio and features cover artwork created by drummer Michel Langevin (a.k.a. Away).
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