Union Made - Union Made (1999) - Nineties' diverse rock genres meet unique vocals - 80% (10/07/12)

When I discovered Voivod I always thought the original band's Achilles' tendon was singer Denis "Snake" Bélanger. As time passed by, I realized that his voice was just as unique as the vivid drum play by creative mastermind Michel "Away" Langevin, the out-of-this-world guitar play by Denis "Piggy" d'Amour or the blower bass performance by Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault. His vocals simply don't sound any close to any other singer I know. His strange spacey and almost extraterrestrial tones meet a quite unique accent in a raw and sympathetically unskilled technique that can vary from angry shouts to stoned progressive ways.

Plagued by depressions and internal disputes, the unique singer left Voivod in their progressive era. His former band went on to play quite agressive and pretty hard to digest experimental music with a new singer and bass guitar player on the next two records. It almost took six years before their former singer made a musical comeback in form of the Union Made line-up. The new band officially released a promising single featuring two tracks but the full length album never appeared and is only available on some underground web sites. I'm not sure why this record never saw the light of day but it surely isn't because of a lack of quality.

Thanks to the charismatic vocals, the band sounds a lot like Voivod and what would become the sound of this band on the upcoming self-titled "Voivod" when Denis "Snake" Bélanger joined the band again. This means that the songs are rather short and less progressive and are clearly influenced by traditional punk music but also some alternative rock of the late nineties. There are also some grunge influences in my humble opinion. "Slow Burn" is a quite slow, almost doom influenced grunge track that reminds me of old Puddle of Mudd when they released their underground albums "Stuck" or "Abrasive". This really came as a positive surprise to me but traditional, progressive or thrash metal fans should clearly stay away from this. On the other side, Voivod has never been a normal band and has always been open for experiments and that's also the case for Union Made.

The tracks on this record are though much more accessible than Voivod and some songs are even quite catchy. The soft and slightly melancholic chorus of "Let's Do It" could have made it to the radio stations of the province and included everything that people liked about alternative rock music back in these years. Today, the track sounds a little bit aged though and feels somewhat nostalgic.

My favourite songs come towards the end of the record. "Dreaming And Laughing" has an eerie old school overture that sounds somewhat progressive. The verses are slow but the vocals have a lot of energy. They almost sound raw as if Denis "Snake" Bélanger was just about to lose control about his vocal chords. He sounds a little bit like Wesley Reid Scantlin from Puddle Of Mudd again or even as Kurt Cobain from Nirvana but musically, this record could have almost made it on Voivod's "The Outer Limits" which was the last record they released before the singer left. I really like this mixture of styles and the song's atmosphere.

The quite dark and heavy "Allah Il Allah" convinces with a strangely spiritual chorus that contrasts the quite monotonous but catchy verses. The middle part has a oriental sounding guitar solo and some agressive vocals that come as a welcome change. The band really had a couple of diversified and good ideas and they brought them together in an interesting way.

But the band kept the best track for the end. "Ave Maria" was the only song apart of "Save The World" and "Caveman" that were included on the single, that was known to a larger public as it was released on a French Canadian compilation called "Noël dans la rue III". The track is of course influenced by the famous Christmas carol by Franz Schubert and features a very spiritual atmosphere and some background choirs. The greatest thing about the song is that the vocals are performed in French and talk about Christmas from the point of view of a poor and hungry beggar in the cold winter streets. The socially critical lyrics really have an interesting message even if I must admit that Denis "Snake" Bélanger's French is almost as hard to understand as his English is. His unique vocals make a decent rock song out of the traditional religious song. It has a slight punk attitude that reminds me a lot of the German punk legends "Die toten Hosen" that also released a record with new interpretations of Christmas carols around the sae time with the title "Wir warten aufs Christkind". If you like this track, you should definitely check out the other album, too.

In the end, Union Made's only full length record should definitely have seen the light of day and could have made it to a considerable underground popularity. The songs are short, catchy and follow the trends of the time of their creation without sounding too commercial. The album is a mixture of punk, alternative rock and grunge with some slight metal influences. It might not please to most of the metal maniacs but anybody who's a fan of Voivod's last couple of records or the singer's unqiue vocals in general might enjoy this album and should give it a couple of spins.