This past weekend, guitarist Denis D'Amour (Piggy) of the band Voivod passed away due to complications of colon cancer.

From Blabbermouth:

VOIVOD guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour passed away Friday night (August 26) at approximately 11:45 p.m. due to complications from advanced colon cancer — so advanced that the disease had spread to his liver. D'Amour slipped into a coma Thursday night and died less than 24 hours later in the palliative care unit of a Montreal hospital, surrounded by family and friends. He was 45 years old.

I've been a fan for many, many years and was seriously impressed with the comeback album, Voivod as well as the deluxe reissue of War And Pain. I was eagerly anticpating the new material due out later this year as well. From Newstead's comments about how finished the demos were, we may yet hear Denis' final work:

In a recent interview with Billboard.com, Newsted spoke about the material slated to appear on the group's next CD. "It's the most complete demos I've ever been involved in," he said. "[VOIVOD singer] Snake has already chosen his effects — exact timing of milliseconds for delay. We've had a long time to develop the demos, so there's about 23 or 25 songs that are absolutely listenable right now."

We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, Godspeed to Denis and my condolences to his entire family.

PUB: TAS
minor edit: CMP