Voivod's next album exists in pieces, and the reason it is not finished is not the usual one. Daniel Chewy Mongrain told the Gas Masks and Hand Grenades podcast that three tracks are recorded and about eight are under way, and that the band will go back to it after their October tour of the United States.
“We have maybe eight songs that we started to work on,” he said, in remarks transcribed by Blabbermouth. “Three are already recorded, and we're gonna finish the other ones after that U.S. tour.” The scheduling problem is his: Mongrain teaches jazz and pop electric guitar and music theory full time at the Cegep Regional de Lanaudiere a Joliette in Quebec, and has become director of the music department there.
“It's a lot of work to balance teaching and playing,” he said. “That's why we tour a lot in the summer, because I'm not teaching in the summer.” October is an exception he has had to arrange around, with a replacement found and permissions asked for. He has managed it for eighteen years and says the college backs him, on the grounds that a teacher who plays is worth more than one who only teaches.