As Metallica did with Kill ‘Em All, Montreal’s Voivod helped introduce the strain of punk-charged metal known as thrash with its 1984 debut album, War and Pain. But where Metallica proved to be consummate songwriters, Voivod’s early recordings spotlight a band more interested in musical athleticism and a semi-conceptual theme that rails against impending futuristic nihilism. Bassist Blacky Thériault and drummer Away Langevin set up the following “Warriors of Ice” with thundering rhythms that gallop like the fiery hooves of the apocalyptic four horsemen’s mares. When Piggy D’Amour’s muscled riffs come charging in alongside Snake Bélanger’s war-cry vocal attack, it’s easy to comprehend why such foreboding militaristic themes pepper this album. D’Amour’s hard-chugging strums detonate into adroit fretboard pyrotechnics in “Suck Your Bone,” a salient cut in which Bélanger’s vocals ride the line between a spitting sneer and glass-shattering falsettos.