THE WAY OF ALL FLESH

...original tech/extreme prog metal of high quality. This, in a nutshell describes Gojira's latest (at the time of writing) album. Within the 75 minutes of the album (65min of pure music), Gojira manage to present a solid, brutal style encompassing virtually all the sides of the extreme sound (death, thrash, black, hardcore and the list goes on), executed with memorable musicianship and definite "character".

The chaotic vocals blend nicely with the sound and are counteracted with clean melodic ones when needed. The speeds vary from slow, crawling patterns (e.g. Yama's Messengers) to black metallish blast beats (Adoration for None). There are times when the sound turns to industrial/hardcore as in Toxic Garbage Island and times when the riffs resemble to the big bands of the Swedish Death Metal scene (i.e. At The Gates) - particularly towards the end of the album (Esoteric surgery, Wolf Down the Earth). Among these connections, influences from Slayer/Machine Head and Meshuggah/Death can be observed: the former concerning the slow-to-medium speed passages and the latter the more technically challenging riffs (e.g. title track opening).

The complex arrangements are however built beyond mere influences and exert a tone of originality. The same applies to the guitar techniques: especially the "tapping" and "picking" techniques, used in the opening track and reappearing here and there during the course of the album, raise the interest of the listener. In addition to the above, the band is able to produce catchy tunes (A Sight to Behold) and also introduces more melodic parts to bring the album to a balance (The Silver Cord, second half of The Art of Dying).

I am always sceptical about long records but in this case the quality of the recordings is so high that I overcome my reservations. Truly this is a top-notch album of the extreme genre and can grow on you with every listen. This should only be avoided by those "allergic" to brutal vocals and extreme aspects of metal.

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