Ahh, after a little vacation it feels good to be back on the blog. Gojira are a french Metal band that I first heard about years ago. Honestly though, the band's early material did absolutely nothing for me. I feel like they focused way too much on a groove metal sound, and albums like "The Link" and "From Mars to Sirius" literally floated by me without leaving any impact. However, I saw these guys open for Mastodon a few years back, and they totally killed it, and upon further investigation I really enjoyed Gojira's last album "L'Enfant Sauvage". 4 Years later, Gojira's back with their newest album, "Magma".
Hearing the album’s intro, “The Shooting Star”, I honestly was almost tempted to turn the album off. The lone guitar riff that starts the track is cool and all, but when every other instrumental pops in, I’m not really buying anything of it. I dig the more sludgy sound, but “The Shooting Star” is just so damn sluggish that I feel like half the track I just wanted everything to pick up. As far as the vocals go, they’re actually pretty solid, and hold the track together pretty well. The lyrics are completely over the top and filled with every cliche imaginable, but it’s what I’ve always looked for in metal music, and these lyrics are nothing short of lovable. “The Shooting Star” is also the album’s first glimpse into just how theatrical Gojira have become. I mean some of these vocal moments are so over the top, they almost float into the realm of Ghost’s music. The guitar solo around the 3 minute mark is solid though, and the lyrics and vocal performance are solid enough to keep your interest. “The Shooting Star” isn’t completely unlistenable, but it’s a very safe intro. Honestly, some of the coolest moments here come from the final few moments before the next track, “Silvera” is ushered in. “Silvera” right off the bat has a ton of bite to it, and those backing vocals instantly bring in a much more solid atmosphere. Here, the band sounds like they’re all done warming up and they’re ready to blow our heads off. The verses here are absolutely brutal, as Gojira give up all of their theatrics and go back to the signature snarl that I’ve heard from them in the past. When the more theatrical harmonies show up for the chorus, it’s nothing but magic. The contrast between the verses and the chorus is a spectacle within itself, but “Silvera” as a whole is nothing but raw power. There are moments here that almost remind me of the new Baroness album, but not too much, just enough. “Silvera” is such a brilliant single, being catchy when it needs to be, while remaining punishing instrumentally and delivering soul-sucking verses, listen to it yourself. “The Cell” is up next, wasting absolutely no time in producing balls-to-the-wall metal. When the first verse starts up, we get a slight taste of the band’s groove metal past to give “The Cell” a little extra power. The real star here is the absolutely ruthless chorus, which as heavy as it is remains strangely melodic. While in the past Gojira honestly haven’t been able to keep my attention (Outside of "L'Enfant Sauvage”), so far they’ve interested me constantly, even though I haven’t been absolutely crazy about every track here. “Stranded” is up next, the other single released from “Magma”. The guitar intro her isn’t pretty, but my God is it ever addicting. Every time I hear that one guitar note go up all those octaves it absolutely gets me pumped for the rest of the track. What makes “Stranded” so stunning, is it’s simplicity. A lot of the instrumentals here are pretty straightforward, leaving the vocals on the verse to absolutely rip your soul out. The chorus here is on the simpler side as well, but it’s aggressive enough to make you want to start a mosh pit wherever you are. These harmonious hooks and choruses are seriously doing wonders for the band. While the instrumentals remain as searing as ever, the more theatrical vocals during the choruses and hooks are the icing on the cake, not every band could pull this off trust me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASCF-juurKM
"Yellow Stone" is up next, a short little instrumental interlude that honestly I don't have much to say about. It’s a little sluggish, but thankfully it only sticks around for a little over a minute. It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, it’s sludgy, what more can you ask for? The album’s title track is up next, with “Magma” starting off with a really solid intro with a great atmosphere. Gojira still sound very focused, with a decent riff and fierce drums. Now when the verse shows up here, it’s strangely mellow and much more theatrical (I mean these vocals absolutely scream Ghost to me). It’s a little strange to hear a more mellow track in between all of these fiery numbers, but to be honest it’s an interesting change of pace. Lyrically, it’s just as over the top and cliche as I love when it comes to Metal lyrics, and the more melodic vocals pull everything together wonderfully. Not to mention that piercing guitar behind everything really gives this track a much more epic feel. The later moments of “Magma” bring out some legitimately heavy moments as well, this track is far from mellow the whole way through. “Magma” is almost 7 minutes long though, which isn’t really bad, this track is way too epic to ignore anything. Then we have “Pray”, which has more tension in it’s intro than any other track here, mostly due to the frantic snare tapping and that killer……flute? Yea there’s a flute in there for a few seconds, and it’s just as awesome as you think. “Pray” continues to have a fierce, almost tribal feel throughout. The guitars that come in eventually are just as intense as you would think, and the vocals here interestingly enough are dual vocals between the more melodic and screams making for a genuinely cool sound. Over the course of the track it does slow down quite a bit, but “Pray” never loses hold, and continues to be one hell of a spectacle. Not to mention, the chorus is so insanely in your face that it’s almost funny, but man is it enjoyable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBHxhhqhMiQ
Now to be honest, the last few tracks on “Magma” are a little bizarre. First we have “Only Pain”, which has so much potential to be an amazing track that it drives me nuts. This track starts off with those fantastic twangy guitars that appeared earlier, and the other instrumentals are just as brilliant here. The vocals here though are just not up to par at all. Seriously, these almost come off as Nu-Metal vocals *shivers*. The chorus steps it up a notch, but the rest of the vocals here are just way too much of a medium between the abrasive growls and the more melodic moments. Outside of that it’s a solid track, but it’s just such a shame, because if those vocals during the verses were more solid this track would be an absolute monster. Up next we have “Low Lands”, which starts off with these tin-sounding distant instrumentals, which honestly is a little overdone but whatever, it doesn’t stick around long. The vocals here are so over the top that I actually really dig them. But instrumentally this one is a little bland, which is a little strange. The instrumentals clearly aren't the stars here, as the vocals take center stage. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s an interesting change, it’s just a little weird at times. What makes this so interesting is just seeing Gojira attempt a slower track. But it’s just so….weird. The heaviness has completely taken a backseat, and tons of people are going to not look past that. Then we have the album’s completely out of place finale, “Liberation”. Now hold your horses, I have nothing against instrumental finishes, I think they’re usually pretty solid. But I feel like this track should have been placed a few tracks earlier, hell let “Low Lands” be the finale. “Liberation” once again isn’t bad, but it’s completely bizarre, being an acoustic instrumental. It sounds fine, but man is it a let down. Overall though, I think Gojira came through with a solid album.
Rating: 8.0/10
Give a Listen To: "Silvera" "Stranded", "Pray", "Magma"
Overall Thoughts: Man oh man, these guys have definitely grown over the years, in a good way. They've dropped a lot of their Groove Metal roots, and have thrown out some of their Progressive sounds (which might just upset some), for a much more theatrical sound. It's absolutely just as heavy, but they're been adding in more melodies in just the right places to make some of their most well constructed tracks yet. No matter how brutal these tracks get, these fantastic choruses make them even more filled with life, and while the last few tracks were a little bizarre for my taste this is still a solid Metal album.
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