GOJIRA — L'Enfant Sauvage (review)

GOJIRA — L'Enfant Sauvage album cover Album · 2012 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"L'Enfant Sauvage" is the 5th full-length studio album by French metal act Gojira. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in June 2012. Gojira have experienced a constantly rising popularity curve since the release of "From Mars to Sirius (2005)". "The Way of All Flesh (2008)" only cemented their position as one of the leading hybrid death/thrash metal acts and they´ve toured extensively in the wake of that album, which has further helped gain them popularity and a reputation as one of the tightest playing live acts out there.

...while some artist opt to release a new album each year or maybe every second year, Gojira are not as productive, but listening to "L'Enfant Sauvage" it´s pretty obvious why that is. These guys are perfectionists. Not only have they honed they technical skills but they have also spend valuable time on songwriting details that ultimately makes "L'Enfant Sauvage" another very strong release by the band.

The music on the album pretty much continue down the same progressive hybrid death/thrash path as they´ve travelled for a couple of albums now. Sharp precision drumming, heavy rythmic groove based riffs, atmospheric sections (which often remind me of Killing Joke and their melancholic sound) and those trademark semi-growling/raw yet strangely melodic vocals by lead vocalist/guitarist Joe Duplantier. He probably has one of the most characteristic extreme metal vocal styles on the scene today. That mix of rawness and melodic sensitivity is rare. I´m thinking of a vocalist like Phil Anselmo in his prime. Not that Joe Duplantier sounds like Anselmo, but his vocal style features some of the same raw/melodic qualities as the former Pantera vocalist also did/does. In addition to his raw vocal delivery, Joe Duplantier´s vocals are often doubled with more melodic sounding vocals. I´m not sure if it´s vocoder created vocals, but there is a robotic quality to them.

The 11 track, 52:25 minutes long album features quality tracks throughout, but tracks like "Exlosia", "L'Enfant Sauvage", "Liquid Fire", "Pain is a Master" and "Born in Winter" (where Duplantier tries his hand at singing clean vocals and comes away pretty successful), stand out to me.

"L'Enfant Sauvage" not only features excellent musicianship and quality songwriting, but also features a strong, clear and powerful sound production to boot. All in all "L'Enfant Sauvage" is a very strong release by Gojira and a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed