Godzilla Was Too Drunk To Destroy Tokyo – Sideral Voivod
Release Date: 22nd August 2025
Label: Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Heavy Fuzz Rock, Punk, Stoner.
FFO: L7, Melvins, The Stooges.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Before we start, can we please just take a moment to stand back and put our hands together in appreciation for this Italian trio’s truly magnificent moniker.
However, with a name that attention grabbing, you are going to have to have the chops to back it up, you can’t draw comparisons to a gigantic pissed up prehistoric monster, and then play it safe when it comes to the music. Thankfully GWTDTDT were apparently never told not to play with pointy things and plug sockets as Sideral Voivod goes off like a landline in a tar pit and more than lives up to the expectations that that name creates. Drummer Nicola Viola punishes his kit like an octopus possessed by Animal from the muppets. Alessandro “Camu” Camurati chucks out fat greasy riffs as nonchalantly as a drunk student with the bones from a KFC bargain bucket, and Sara de Luca’s bass tone is akin to particularly irate gorilla – most of the time it sounds like she’s shouting her vocals from the back the room (no wonder she is also known as The Evil Lord!)
The scuzzy, stoner Interstellar Greyhound kicks the album off and like a giant fuzzball down a steep slope it keeps rolling until the final notes of Summer In The Void, flattening and enveloping everything in its path, whether it’s the 60s acid rock textures, monolithic fuzz and offbeat rhythmic breakdowns of Sasquatch’s Eyes, or the hardcore punk riffage that claws across the last third of Icarus.
Showing that they have just as much creativity when it comes to naming songs, the pun-tastic King Bong is two minutes of maniacal doom, while the opening of the equally impressively titled Telekinetic Thunder Yeti sounds like the countdown to the apocalypse in a 70s sci-fi B-movie.
In other press articles the word ‘unhinged’ has been used in conjunction with GWTDTDT, but also the word ‘hypnotic’, and both are entirely justifiable. Listening to Sideral Voivod could be likened to finding yourself in the passenger seat of a car about to embark on a road trip with a driver you barely know and who has obviously missed his regular meds and had one too many Red Bulls. You can either retreat to the safety of the pavement, or you can buckle up and enjoy the ride!
(4 / 5)
