Note: Gojira is a French death metal band (with other fun genre additions you can add, like progressive, or technical). This genre of music is not something I'm well versed in. I'm going to attempt a non-fan perspective on the album without getting too into genre specifics, but it's still very possible I may get some things wrong. I apologize beforehand.
I had an unusual introduction to this album. The title track was released far before the album was (the album isn't actually out, but you can hear it on Facebook or Spotify if you want). I listened to it and was a bit baffled. I had read that they signed to Roadrunner Records, which didn't sound like a good thing to me, and after hearing the song, I felt like it justified my fears. It sounds like a modern heavy rock track. It sounds like something you might hear on modern rock radio. It sounds awful.
Having heard Gojira in the past, I had to hear the whole album. Surely it couldn't all sound like that! Fortunately, it didn't. After hearing the whole album, I even came to conclusion that releasing the song "L'Enfant Sauvage" as a first single may have been a brilliant move.
The album starts with "Explosia," a fast, loud, and pretty standard Gojira track. It didn't really excite me too much, but it did calm my worries that Gojira may have gone soft on us. The following track is the before mentioned title track. After a few more listens, I still hate it, but it's a great way to lure in fans of more radio friendly music into an album of tracks that have a bit of a progressive edge. It was a good marketing decision.
"The Axe" comes off similarly to the opening track. The following track, "Liquid Fire," is when this album starts piquing my interest. It begins standard enough with a rather nice groove, and moves into a really nice melodic part. The vocalist does this growl/sing combo that blends wonderfully with the melody, and takes me back to some old doom metal bands I used to like. It speeds back up and adds some odd robotic sounding vocal effects and continues sounding great.
"The Wild Healer" is a fun little interlude with a noodling electric guitar part that sticks in your head.
The following track, "Planned Obsolescence," is probably the best straight up loud track on the record. It has a lot of energy and the melodies were good enough to keep me from being bored.
By the time I got to "Mouth of Kala," I began to start having negative feelings again. That particular track didn't really have much to offer, and the album started feeling a bit repetitive. Then "The Gift of Guilt" happened. The track opens with some really nice guitar melodies and a thumping drum part with some straight up nasty fills. It fills in the space between these sections with some great metal riffing. It's a great metal track, through and through.
"Pain is a Master" gets points for trying something a bit different too, but it's not really a great track. It has an unplugged sounding intro that doesn't really offer much, some fast riffing that will interest people into that sort of thing, and then goes fairly progressive after that. Unfortunately, the melodies aren't that great.
"Born in Winter" is the track for people who don't typically listen to metal. It moves at a fair speed and has a nice groove, and the guitars stay pretty calm for the most part. Things open up a bit about half way through the track, but it still remains in control of itself and sounds pretty good. The vocal parts are of particular interest in this track too. There's a lot of variety between a low, melodic singing and an uplifting sounding scream.
The album finishes with "The Fall," a track that at points could probably pass for an Alice in Chains track. It has it's share of death metal fills and brutal vocals, but they usually just connect the slower, melodic parts. It's a decent track and a pretty good way to end the album.
Considering this genre isn't really my thing as a whole, my lowered expectations about the title track didn't really bother me. Now that I've heard the album, I am glad to see my expectations were overturned, but I'm still not super excited about this record. It's probably not a bad starting point for people who don't listen to this kind of thing, but it still is "this kind of thing." I'd recommend it to fans of the band, or fans of death metal, but my recommendation to those people doesn't really mean anything because my opinion on this stuff frankly carries no weight.
Rating: 64%
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