So without anymore delay of me ranting and raving about their live performance, AFGM brings you the next part of the series...GOJIRA!!!
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It has always been hard to put a tag on GOJIRA, one of France’s most extreme bands the country’s musical pallet has ever known. But then again, the band has never really sought out such a tag, instead letting the music do the talking, preferring introspection and intelligence over preconceived notions and preexisting tags. Ever since the 1996 formation in town of Bayonne in the southwest of France, GOJIRA has been an ever-evolving experiment in extreme metal ultimately built upon a worldly, ever-conscious outlook with roots firmly-planted both in the hippie movement and an environmentally-conscious, new age mentality. This time, with The Way of All Flesh, GOJIRA harnesses a spiritual consciousness as well, but still culminates in a sound wholly heavy.
Originally dubbed Godzilla, after the scaly, green film star with an equally huge reputation as the newfound band’s sound, the brothers Duplantier – guitarist/vocalist Joe and drummer Mario – and fellow Frenchmen Jean Michel Labadie on bass and Christian Andreu on guitar, quickly released several demos, ultimately changing the band’s name and independently releasing the first GOJIRA album, Terra Incognita, in 2001, offering up a brief glimpse into the giant GOJIRA would eventually become through persistent hard work and years of toiling in the metal underground.
Gojira consists of:
Joe Duplantier - Guitar, Vocals | Mario Duplantier - Drums | Christian Andreu - Guitar | Jean-Michel Labadie - Bass
After the 2003 release of the band’s follow-up, The Link, throughout Europe and the subsequent live DVD release the next year, of the aptly-titled The Link Alive, 2005 brought the release of From Mars To Sirius, the band’s breakthrough release, garnering high praise and a North American release through Prosthetic Records in 2006. Fans of not only heavy, extreme music took notice, but so did the intellectual world, thanks to Sirius’ thoughtful and expansive inner examination of the world at hand and the consequences of humanity’s struggle to coexist without harm. The metal world was amused and amazed: much of it hadn’t yet seen an equally intelligent and pummelingly heavy release that was as expansive and open as it was dense and concise.
Following the immense praise of From Mars To Sirius and recurring trips across the Atlantic for North American touring alongside the likes of Lamb of God, Children of Bodom, and Behemoth among others, GOJIRA established its stranglehold on the extreme metal spectrum with a linguist’s touch, a lyricist’s finesse, and a crushingly heavy live show that left audiences astounded, establishing the band’s live performance as a spot-on recreation of the band’s increasingly adept and intelligent studio output.
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While 2007 wrapped with GOJIRA again touring North America on the Radio Rebellion Tour alongside Behemoth to the best reaction yet, the dawn of 2008 saw a nearly 10 month wait for while the band assembled The Way of All Flesh, one of the year’s most anticipated records. This time revolving around the undeniable dilemma of a mortal demise, GOJIRA’s soundtrack to the situation seems fitting. Shifting ever-so-slightly from the eco-friendly orchestra of impending doom on From Mars To Sirius to the band’s new message of the equally uncontrollable inevitability of death, The Way of All Flesh melds the open and airy progressive passages GOJIRA has become famous for with the sonically dense sounds and bludgeoningly heavy rhythms that makes the band an equally intelligent force as it is unmatchably heavy.
Featuring a guest vocal spot on “Adoration For None” from Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe – one of GOJIRA’s most vocal supporters from their first moment making an impression in the Americas – and the now familiar Morbid Angel-isms of The Way Of All Flesh’s title track join the angular riffing more akin to Meshuggah on “Esoteric Surgery” and the epic, artful plodding of the nearly 10-minute “The Art of Dying,” showing that GOJIRA have indeed opened a new bag of tricks for The Way Of All Flesh, while not abandoning the sound that first showed a massive promise of potential on Sirius.
“It’s more inventive than From Mars To Sirius and at the same time more straight to the point. The whole album is about death, death is like a step on the path of the soul. The mystery surrounding this phenomenon is just so inspiring, and death is the most common thing on earth.
This album is also a ‘requiem’ for our planet. We don't want to be negative or cynical about the fate of humanity, but the situation on Earth is growing critical, and the way humans behave is so catastrophic that we really need to express our exasperation about it. It's not fear, but anger. But we still believe that consciousness can make a difference and that we can change things as human beings.” -Joe Duplantier
Gojira's tour will be in support of the brand new album "L'Enfant Sauvage" (aka "The Wild Child"), which was released June 26th, 2012 via Roadrunner Records.
"It's Gojira but wiser and heavier. Our music is always evolving. I hope there is more to come from us! I believe we can get heavier and deeper and more magical than before. I respect everything that's been done before, but I hope we're digging in another direction. It's not a technical direction. It's a more spiritual direction. I think we're getting closer to the core of why we're doing this music. It's hard to describe it. Until I hear the new album it's hard to have a clear vision of it. Fuck it, it's just better!
We are so stoked to walk with the legendary Roadrunner. We discovered Sepultura, Machine Head, Death, Fear Factory and so many other great bands thanks to these guys. Roadrunner has been a great source of inspiration for us as metal fans. It's an honor to be part of this family today as a band. We feel we'll get the right support at the right moment in our career. We cannot wait to release our new record and get back on the road." -Joe Duplantier
1. Explosia
2. L'Enfant Sauvage
3. The Axe
4. Liquid Fire
5. The Wild Healer (instrumental)
6. Planned Obsolescence
7. Mouth of Kala
8. The Gift of Guilt
9. Pain is a Master
10. Born in Winter
11. The Fall
Now, being that this was one of 2012's most highly anticipated albums, it goes without saying that most of the critic reviews came back quite positive and with comparisons to other bands where they may have sought influence from when growing up (referred back to Joe's comments on signing with Roadrunner Records).
"The early word regarding L'Enfant Sauvage, the four-years-in-the-waiting fifth LP by French death metal dynamos Gojira, is that it revolves around conceits of self-reliance and self-determination. It's fitting, then, that the title track and first single from the band's Roadrunner debut, out June 26, depends upon a lot of moving parts, as if Gojira is testing the various sides of itself-- the grinding invocation, the mid-tempo follow-up, the fade-to-oblivion outro-- right here on tape. The most rewarding bit comes toward the middle, when brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier continually slingshot past one another, the former's serrated line slicing through the bursts and breaks of the latter. Actually, most everything after that moment is breathless and awesome, like a late bloomer finally finding what's been his own all along." -Pitchfork
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"One of the most anticipated albums of the year is Gojira's L'Enfant Sauvage. It's the French band's fifth studio album, and first since signing with Roadrunner Records. Their trademark sound and creativity are there, but they have harnessed and focused it, making for a really potent CD. Crushing riffs, catchy melodies, a variety of moods and atmospheres and memorable songs make L'Enfant Sauvage another excellent release from Gojira." -About.com
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"And so continues L’enfant Sauvage. The title track, released months prior to the release, utilizes standard Gojiran fare - shudderingly heavy thanks to brother Mario Duplantier’s ever-present double-kicking and the aforementioned guitarist’s honed tremolo picking - while still tweaking and experimenting with their brand of evolutionary death metal to sound as fresh as they did at their inception. Songs such as ‘Pain is a Master’ would lull an inexperienced listener into believing that, from a subdued and placid intro, a more melodious progression would follow. Those who have listened to Gojira before would know that this is not the case, erupting into a blastbeat that would feel overused if not for how far Mario’s intricacies take their sound. As the album nears its end, ‘Born in Winter’ pushes the band’s boundaries so far that they could be considered conventionally listenable, clean vocals and cleaner-than-usual guitar tones give an expansion their already intelligent, contemplative sound. The track is well-placed to reminisce of ‘From Mars’ which led into ‘To Sirius’, from the eponymous album.
Signs of deterioration, though, are apparent in what once made Gojira feel so fresh. Having previously nailed closing tracks on previous albums, saving the title track for the end on The Way of All Flesh and it being one of the most memorable tracks, ‘The Fall’ falls ironically flat to be the track intended to hold all that came before it. Ultimately, it’s one of the most forgettable songs on the album, standard Gojiran fare not enough what with its pick scrapes and chugging not enough to overshadow how ill-constructed and uninspired it feels. It’s something that ‘Planned Obsolescence’ has elements of also; a series of seriously cool ideas not to be the best song on the album, but to be the best series of cool ideas. Also, ‘The Wild Healer’ is, on first listen, unlike any short interlude they’ve ever attempted before. It must be heard directly after the end of ‘Liquid Fire’ to be believed and personally judged.
Despite these necessary grievances, it remains an record with more than enough to satisfy. Releases from dubiously-dubbed progressive metal acts that have recently moved to Roadrunner such as Porcupine Tree, Opeth and Mastodon had prompted me not to extensively listen to the new releases, but to rediscover what I loved before whatever creative thresholds took over on these albums. With a sound like Gojira’s though, even the smallest attempts to create something more accessible are squandered by their conscious musical evolution and a darkened, yet enlivening tone. With the world of metal now rightfully at their disposal and L’enfant Sauvage set to be their first album to receive the widespread exposure it deserves, Gojira’s mission isn’t accomplished, but is just getting started." -Sputnik Music
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"France's Gojira have established themselves as one of heavy metal's most wildly creative and cerebral forces. Their fifth studio album sustains their trademark blend of unfathomable heaviness, structural invention and ecological-cum-existential poetry while subtly enhancing its dramatic and emotional impact. As fans have come to expect, songs such as labyrinthine opener Explosia and the scabrous, melancholic trawl of Planned Obsolescence eschew metal cliches in favour of exhilarating percussive twists and turns, churning dissonance and deft flashes of melody. The uninitiated may detect shades of Killing Joke amid the epic, tectonic grind of Mouth of Kala and the skittering menace of the title track, but overall this is a ferociously original piece of work that reaches its electrifying zenith on The Gift of Guilt: six minutes of sledgehammer sorrow built from riffs that sound like warning shots fired from the planet's doomed and turbulent core. This is metal taken to a higher plane of brilliance." -Dom Lawson/The Guardian
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"Gojira certainly aren’t afraid to try a few new things, either. The album’s opener immediately hits you with a massive groove before delving into what sounds like a progressive metal take on a Spaghetti Western soundtrack. Strange? Maybe, but it’s downright awesome within the context of the song. 'Liquid Fire' and 'Born in Winter' also show that the band is certainly capable of writing catchy choruses for days on end without sacrificing any grit. But perhaps the best change Gojira have made with L’Enfant Sauvage is choosing to make the album a noticeable ten minutes shorter than their previous two LPs. Complaints have always come their way that their albums have been too long, and L’Enfant Sauvage recognizes this, keeping the album at a modest 53 minute runtime. It certainly helps the listener in remembering each song and just begs to be replayed again and again.
Why should you care about yet another groove metal album in 2012? Because Gojira don’t seem like they’re trying. L’Enfant Sauvage seems almost effortless, and shows that the band know exactly what they need to sound like to get heads a-bobbing and fists a-pumping. No frills, no unnecessary technicality, and certainly no mindless electronic interludes. If Meshuggah are the Melvins of groove metal (the weird band everyone tries to rip off), then Gojira are the genre’s High on Fire (dependable as hell and incredibly heavy). Regardless of what metal niche you may find yourself in these days, you need to hear this." -Metal Injection
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For more info on the French four piece sensation, then check out some of their official sites:
- www.gojira-music.com
- www.facebook.com/GojiraMusic
- www.twitter.com/GojiraMusic
- www.youtube.com/TheOfficialGojira
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