It was only two days earlier, on August 24, that drummer Michel Langevin and the rest of the band had asked to support D\'Amour:

\"Our good friend and guitar hero Denis D\'Amour aka Piggy is very ill. We are helping Denis in every way that we can to feel comfortable while he fights to get healthy. (...) Please feel welcome to send any notes, good words and positive vibes to Piggy at one or both of the following contacts and we will make sure he gets to read them.\"

One day later D\'Amour slipped into a coma and died less than 24 hours later in the palliative care unit of a Montreal hospital, surrounded by family and friends.

Langevin and the other Voivod musicians reacted on D\'Amour\'s sudden death with this statement:

\"As we all mourn his passing, we also celebrate his life. Thank you so much to everyone who sent Piggy get well wishes in his last few days with us.\"

D\'Amour, who was reportedly diagnosed with colon cancer earlier in the summer, first entered the hospital for a routine operation, but several complications led his doctors to suspect more problems. Then the grim verdict was revealed: the cancer, already too advanced, would be inoperable.

Only two months ago, D\'Amour was in the studio working on the 14th album from the Canadian thrash-metal pioneers Voivod. More than two dozen tracks are believed to have been demoed for the CD, for which the group recently inked a deal with The End Records.

Prior to his hospitalization, D\'Amour laid down guitar tracks for a reunion CD from the legendary Aut\'chose, a \'70s band from Montreal.
That album is expected to surface in 2006.