Voivod have announced that Christine McDonald, the partner of their singer Denis Snake Belanger, has died after what the band called a long and courageous battle with cancer.
"Christine was a gifted painter, a warm presence, and a dear friend to so many in the Voivod family," the band wrote. "Snake stepped away from touring this year to be by her side, and he was with her until the very end." Belanger's own words, in the same statement: "She passed away quietly in my arms. You're free now, my love."
The band asked that the family's privacy be respected and said nothing further. What the statement does explain is the year: Voivod cancelled ten American dates without naming a new time for them, and gave no reason beyond a family matter. This was it.
Voivod have been going since 1982 and Belanger has sung on almost all of it. Nobody owes an audience an explanation for a year like that one, and the band gave the smallest possible version of it at the time. Our condolences to him and to her family.