Away says Voivod‘s “We Are Connected” documentary is aiming for a Christmas release after a long fight to clear music rights.
Voivod‘s documentary has existed in finished form since July 2024. Almost nobody has been able to watch it, and the reason is paperwork.
Michel “Away” Langevin told Poland’s Noise Magazine that “We Are Connected” is now targeted for release at Christmas, two and a half years after its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.
“Right now we are aiming for a Christmas release. The main difficulty was to clear the rights for all the bits of music, because we’ve dealt with so many different publishing companies over the years, that it was quite a Kafkaesque enterprise. But we finally cleared all the music, and so there will be a version for the festivals, but a version for Blu-ray and a version for platforms, online platforms. So we’re aiming for a Christmas release right now. And I would think that the video game [‘Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior‘, the first official video game inspired by Voivod‘s distinctive blend of sci-fi, metal, and surrealism] would come first, but finally the ‘We Are Connected‘ documentary will be available in not too long,” Away said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Three separate versions are now planned: a festival cut, a Blu-ray edition and a streaming release.
The film is directed by Felipe Belalcázar, who previously made the Chuck Schuldiner documentary “Death By Metal“, and was assembled with access to the band’s own archives. It runs from their beginnings in Jonquière, in northern Québec, through tours with Iron Maiden, Rush and Metallica, and covers the death of co-founding guitarist Dennis “Piggy” D’Amour, which many assumed had ended the band.
Contributors include Tobias Forge of Ghost, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, Jason Newsted, Zach Blair of Rise Against and Gwar, Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost and Triptykon, and Ivan Doroschuk of Men Without Hats.
Voivod had tried this before. In 2006 it was reported that Sam Dunn would direct the band’s documentary after interviewing them for “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey”. That version never materialised, and no clear explanation was ever given.
The video game Away expects to arrive first gets its public debut at Gamescom in Cologne later this month. “Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior” is a retro-styled 2D action game built with Chaosmonger Studio and funded through Kickstarter, casting the player as the Voivod character. Guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain has converted the band’s music into 8-bit form, Denis “Snake” Bélanger voices the lead character, bassist Dominic “Rocky” Laroche has been testing it and Langevin supplied artwork.
Both are due this winter, and a new concept album is being written for late 2027.
Bélanger is not on the current European dates, having stepped away to deal with a family matter. His partner Christine McDonald is being treated for stage four colorectal cancer, and a GoFundMe was set up earlier this year to help with medical costs. Eric Forrest, who fronted Voivod in the 1990s and now leads E-Force, has been covering the shows since July 10 at the Slaughter Club in Paderno Dugnano, near Milan. Forrest disclosed in February that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 prostate cancer in 2024 and started a fundraiser of his own for treatment.
The band’s Symphonique live album came out on June 5 through Century Media Records, recorded with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec at the Grand Théâtre in Québec City on June 4, 2025. It runs 12 songs across 73 minutes. Voivod had previously performed with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on January 29 and 30, 2025.
A 10-date American tour opens on October 8 in Youngstown, Ohio, with support from Bat, the Richmond trio of Ryan Waste, Nick Poulos and Chris Marshall.
Voivod formed in Jonquière in the early 1980s and are counted alongside Sacrifice, Razor and Annihilator among Canadian thrash’s founding acts. Nothingface, their fifth album, remains their only entry on the Billboard 200, peaking at 114 in 1989. Synchro Anarchy won the Juno for Best Hard Rock/Metal Album in 2023, and 2023’s Morgöth Tales, nine re-recorded catalogue tracks plus a new title song — was their most recent studio release.
Jeff Wagner‘s official biography Always Moving: The Strange Multiverse Of Voivod was published last November and runs beyond 500 pages.
