GOJIRA — L'Enfant Sauvage (review)

Album · 2012 · Death Metal

3/5 · 2012-06-27
arcane-beautiful

Gojira have been one of my favourite bands in the past few years. When I first bought From Mars To Sirius, it became one of my all time favourite albums. Such a powerfull album and it literaly was the most unique metal album I had ever heard. It literally sounded like it came from outer space. Their follow up, The Way Of All Flesh was a great follow up, and contained my favourite Gojira song...The Art Of Dying.

So when I heard they where releasing a new album, I automatically looked back on their past, and how epic and amazing it was. The 2 songs that where released from this album made me excited for what was to come...sadly...I was let down.

Now the album isn’t that bad. If any other band had realised it, it would be their best probably. But because your trying to follow up 2 of the best albums released in the past 10 years…yea it can be a difficult task.

One thing that grabbed my attention was that the album itself is a little bit more melodic than their previous 2, but to be honest, the power has gone away. The melodic touches to some off the riffs do give the album a certain characteristic, but it does feel like some of the Gojira trademarks have been lost. It also feels like the band have been listening to a lot of modern metal bands, and imitating their styles. But the thing was that Gojira’s uniqueness was what made the band so good. They didn’t sound like anything…ever!

Musically the band are always on par. With spectacular riffs, powerfull grooves and amazing vocals, the bands formula is as strong as ever. Sadly some of the material is lack lustre.

Lyrically the band has never been better. In fact, I was really surprised at how poetic the lyrics where. Always take the French to speak better English than English speakers can.

Production wise, the album has a very modern sound, which to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of. The thing that attracted me to Gojira was that the production literally made the drums and guitars sounded like planets smashing into each other. Now it just sounds like everything else.

1. Explosia – A very average intro, especially for a Gojira album. Definitely no Ocean Planet, The Link or Oroborus. And the song goes on for a bit. 6/10

2. L'enfant Sauvage – One of the most melodic songs on the album. As usual, there is cool riffs and powerful moments. 10/10

3. The Axe – One of the most powerful songs on the album. Some pretty cool and kick ass moments. 8/10

4. Liquid Fire – The best song on the album. And probably one of my favourite Gojira songs. Love the use of vocoder on Joe's vocals. Has great vocals and very powerful moments. 10/10

5. The Wild Healer – This song is actually really cool. A short tapping based instrumental with some nice tribal beats. Pretty cool. 9/10

6. Planned Obsolescence – An odd song with some interesting changes. Shame it’s a bit bland still. 7/10

7. Mouth Of Kala – Anything to do with Kali, usually I love. But it's a pretty standard Goira song. Great lyrics though. 7/10

8. The Gift Of Guilt – One of the most interesting songs on the album. With a slower pace and less rhythm, the guitar bits really are pretty interesting. 8/10

9. Pain Is A Master – Another interesting moment. The eerie intro its really cool, and one of the oddest riffs is in this song. One of the best songs on the album. 9/10

10. Born In Winter – A bit slower and more eerie, but still a bit bland. 7/10

11. The Fall – A very disappointing intro. Definitely not as powerful as Global Warming or The Way Of All Flesh. 6/10

*bonus tracks

12. The Emptiness – A nice more upbeat moment. This should have been on the album. 8/10

13. My Last Creation – Pretty standard Gojira, but still should have been on the album. 7/10

CONCLUSION: It's just not the same. The power, the flair and the style of Gojira that attracted me to the band has now weakened and replaced with something, still listMoienable, but is a bit bland to me.

6.4/10