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Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage CD (album) cover

L'ENFANT SAUVAGE

Gojira

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal


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3 stars 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 powerfull 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

Report this review (#778208)
Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2012 | Review Permalink
4 stars 4.5 stars.

Gojira. Just the mention of the band's name will cause a plethora of scattered opinions ranging from adoration to disgust, as rarely does there come a band as polarizing. With the previous four records, it was clear that Gojira's sound wasn't exactly bound to change, to many people sounding like a more passionate take on Meshuggah-style extreme metal. However, it seems we've finally seen a break from many of the norms this band is known for. L'Enfant happens to be a bit of a rarity in the current state of metal, pulling off brutality and elegance almost perfectly.

What we have here is the band's sound finally coming together and reaching a peak lyrically and musically. Instrumentally, more variation is brought to the table, with the chunky guitar/bass duo being balanced out with the aforementioned elegance, with an extra- melodic side producing a nice atmospheric flavor. The album also happens to be among the band's darkness, only rivaled by The Way of All Flesh; correct me if I'm wrong, but the lyrics seem to convey a sense of freedom and its cost in this world. Songs like "Explosia" and "Liquid Fire" certainly seem to put that concept on display.

Speaking of "Explosia", that happens to be the grand opener, and what an impression it makes! While the song starts out in typical Gojira fashion, with all the thick guitar chords, extremely precise drumming patterns, and Pantera-esque squeals, the second half reveals something more... an identity and a heart. This is especially prevalent in the cathartic moment right in the middle portion where a dark textural feel edges out the brutality and Joe Duplantier sounds very passionate in his near-desperate-sounding shouts.

The "identity" and "heart" are exactly what sets this apart from a lot of the other work Gojira's released; it sounds like Gojira have finally found a sound they're content with, and songs like the reflective "Born in Winter" and the eerie suspenseful "The Gift of Guilt" sound generally more enticing than previous efforts. Much of the reason is that there sounds like a drive and a flow to these songs; more feeling if you will.

Again, though, if you're looking for that heavy edge that originally made this band so notable, the album should appeal to those in that camp as well. "Planned Obsolescence" emphasizes Mario Duplantier's nimble double-bass drumming while the aggressive title track definitely has that "chugga-chugga" feel in the rhythm section as the guitars synchronize and put the riffs into overdrive.

There really isn't much more to say. This has been a long time coming for Gojira, but they seem to have finally found their identity and made a fantastic album that's equal parts bloody and beautiful. What came of this is progressive extreme metal with a real sense of atmosphere and melody to balance out the pummeling brutality. Highly recommended.

(Originally written on Sputnikmusic.com

Report this review (#810301)
Posted Saturday, August 25, 2012 | Review Permalink
UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars "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.

Report this review (#815754)
Posted Thursday, September 6, 2012 | Review Permalink
4 stars Gojira "L'enfant Sauvage" 7.5/10

Lets get right to it.

This album was released a decently long four years from their previous release back in 2008 titled "The Way Of All Flesh", which is brought about because of a few things, one of which a label change. Gojira is more than happy to be releasing this LP under the Roadrunner label, and the quality of this emotion has spread well to their music. The production value has improved vastly (in my opinion) from the first couple albums they released "The Link" and "Terra Incognita" and the wall of heavy I love Gojira for has also shown some great changes, for better or worse depends on one's preference.

Before the release of the album, there have been short clips uploaded to the internet by the band of them recording the album (in New York City) and displaying all the wild and awesome techniques they utilise to create the unique Gojira sound. Among the videos is a clip of the behemoth of a drummer, Mario Duplantier, pounding away on a heavy steel door, microphones set up everywhere. I was greatly interested in this idea. This is album is going to be good.

Upon it's release, June 26 2012, I used the first bit of free time to purchase this album, and listened to it intensely and repeatedly over the next few days. I was not disappointed.

Kicking off L'enfant Sauvage ("The Wild Child" for those who don't speak French) is the explosive track "Explosia"and it does more than a fantastic job of starting this simply awesome album. Right off the bat it sets up the incredibly heavy mood of music that is Gojira, with the slow and definite intro riff. Following this is a series of technical drumming rhythms and guitar sections, over-flowing with guitarist and vocalist, Joe Duplantier's, intense ability to manipulate the guitar to speak in tongues with the music and to the audience. The effects he can conjure up are simply amazing. Ending this track is an amazing and yet simple, a but also heavy riff, which goes on, fading out, for around two minutes, allowing the listener to anticipate the next track.

The title track is the second song on L'enfant Sauvage, and it sure does an incredible job of being on the album it's named after (or vice versa, whichever happened first) The song begins with a quiet guitar riff opening up to another heavy riff, allowing the song to begin in proper Gojira fashion. Simplistic, yet brutal and progressively heavy. The song seems to follow a fairly simple structure, i.e. intro, verse, etc, but it delivers all that it needs to, so this should not be a problem for some of the most picky prog metal fans. Around the 2:20 mark opens up an incredible section of brutally heavy guitar and bass riffage that I simply love in Gojira. Perfectly placed in the song, and delivers no disappointment. The end half contains a bridge and more of the intro riff, followed by it's quite outro riff.

The third song, "The Axe" shows to be a fairly simple song, but does not let me down. It is filled with Mario's ability to play the bass drum loud and definitely there, and is quite excellent despite a more or less simple song. It is a track that belongs on a Gojira record, that is for sure.

Following "The Axe" is the song "Liquid Fire", this song also kills the doubt that Gojira is still awesome as they have been. It's contents involve Joe's fantastic ability to use his incredible and unique voice, accompanied by the technicality that Mario possesses on the battery. It also follows well the algorithm of L'enfant Sauvage.

Placed just before the LPs middle is an instrumental interlude "The Wild Healer", a short two minute section of a repeating riff with simple drums. Nicely placed to help transition the listener into the next, fantastically heavy, track.

At L'enfant Sauvage's middle is "Planned Obsolescence", an awesome track indeed. Heavy from the get go, with no messing around. This is the intensity that the band does so well, placed perfectly after a mellow interlude, "The Wild Healer" is similar to the transition from "From Mars" to "To Sirius" Found in their 2006 release "From Mars To Sirius" It is a fantastically awesome transition from light to heavy. It is the first track to focus attention on the intense ability Mario contains in blast-beats.

The remaining half of the album contains more or less, the expected second half of L'enfant Sauvage; The intensity is still hanging around, and Gojira is mostly able to keep their energy up and running. It is all accented quite well with their heavy attitude shown through the instruments. A track I would like to single out from the remaining five ("Mouth of Kala", "The Gift Of Guilt", "Pain Is A Master", "Born In Winter" and "The Fall") is "The Gift Of Guilt" This song possesses more of what I love from Gojira, and was my instant favourite off the album. It's starts of with a light tapping guitar part, into the heavier version of the same riff, much like From Mars To Sirius' "Global Warming", and goes into the bulk of the song. The contents of this song is more heavy and extreme Gojira, with the riff holding on to more of Joe's awesome ability to morph the sounds coming from his guitar into unique squeaking and yelling. Despite all technical elements of the song, it holds on to a fairly simple chorus, though the chorus delivers well and displays little room for disappointment, if any were to be found if looked for anyway.

All in all, this album is quite simply a 7.5/10; yes it contains an incredible amount of awesome, and is definitely worth the wait of four years since The Way Of All Flesh, but it still lacks something. It's difficult to say what it needs, but I find it slows down a bit after the middle point; L'enfant Sauvage opens very well, and holds on to its intensity easily into the middle, but starts to slip a bit towards the end. This does not mean that it becomes anywhere near bad towards the end, I just feel that they should close the album as, if not more, powerful as they opened. Despite this, however, upon seeing them play selected tracks from the album live, I can say the live performance of any songs played were beyond awesome. These songs are definitely meant, whether intentional or not, to be played live. I can say I look forward to next release, being the the EP "Sea Sheppard"

Report this review (#849838)
Posted Saturday, November 3, 2012 | Review Permalink
EatThatPhonebook
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars 7/10

A Fun and Heavy Record, But There's Some Deja Vu.

'L'Enfant Sauvage' is the fifth studio album by French Progressive Death Metal band Gojira, released in 2012. Their previous work has already made a great impact in the metal community, for their catchy, heavy and groovy rhythms executed with excellent musicianship and songwriting, seen especially in their sophomore release, the 2005 'From Mars To Sirius', which incorporated a sludgy and primitive production that made the music sound so visceral and earthy. 2008's 'The Way Of All Flesh' had a much cleaner production, which gave the sound a greater Progressive Metal feel. 'L'Enfant Sauvage' unfortunately feels no different from its predecessor. Same production, same kind of grooves, same kind of occasional experimentation. But the reason why this is not necessarily bothersome is because, well, it's a formula that works.

Songwriting wise, the band has stepped down a tiny bit, because some of these songs simply don't have the kick they should, for not being that memorable. Others however, such as the fierce and potent intro 'Explosia', 'Pain Is the Master' or 'the Gift Of Guilt' give us some of the best musicianship in 2012 Metal, without abandoning those catchy riffs the band are popular for. 'Born In Winter' gives a nice touch of variation to the whole picture, and 'The Fall' gives a strong ending to the album. The second part of the LP does in fact gain a whole lot of momentum in comparison to the first half; almost all of the tracks shine, while in the first part you'll find good riffs here and there, but never anything that will particularly impress your memory.

It's unfortunate that Gojira didn't step out of their comfort zone on this one: 'L'Enfant Sauvage' however ends up being a guilty pleasure, but in a completely different sense than what usually the meaning of the term is: this is a very good record nevertheless, that has much more ups than downs, because of the groovy rhythms that are always present, even though perhaps the songwriting is toned down; it's a good listen, despite the static state in which Gojira seem to be stuck in.

Report this review (#897845)
Posted Wednesday, January 23, 2013 | Review Permalink
4 stars Members familiar with this French band will know that they play Progressive Death Metal with a heavy emphasis on Thrash. Their last studio album, 2012's L'Enfant Sauvage, is as good as it's predecessor, 2008's The Way of All Flesh.

The big jump in the quality of the band's music from 2005's From Mars To Sirius was that it was improved by two factors: better songwriting and greatly improved production values. The improved production values remain for 2012's L' Enfant Sauvage as does the improved songwriting. My only problem with this is that it feels like the band might have hit their plateau in progressing, which always gives me cause for concern with Progressive Death groups.

What is an improvement over 2008's The Way Of All Flesh is the band's improved playing skills. These four gents are firing on all eight cylinders and songs like the lead track Explosia are just what the name implies. The playing, songwrting and vocal performances are explosive on several tracks of this album and are evened out by relatively 'calmer' numbers like Born In Winter before the fireworks start up again.

The album ends on a high note with the strong closing track The Fall. I just hope this band does not get sterile with over producing and other distractions that really is not called for in Extreme/Tech metal.

Now, I have to go back and pretend that I only like old prog. 4 stars for this fine effort.

Report this review (#1340807)
Posted Monday, January 5, 2015 | Review Permalink
Necrotica
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Colaborator
4 stars L'Enfant Sauvage might be the first time in Gojira's career in which they didn't really display any forward momentum, at least in regards to furthering and experimenting with their sound. It essentially plays out like a smorgasbord of their previous works, while also acting as a stylistic safety net after the technical musicianship and general darkness of The Way of All Flesh. The songs here are more concise, less expansive, and more conventionally written than in prior records. Is any of this a bad thing? Not necessarily. If anything, the album will be refreshing for new fans who are trying to get into this group's otherwise uncompromising body of work; at a much leaner 52 minutes (lean for Gojira, of course), it's also a nice entry point from a length standpoint as well. The album serves as a nice summary of the band's pre-Magma career? not stuffed to the brim with peaks, but not bogged down with many valleys either.

One listen to the opening cut "Explosia" and you know what L'Enfant Sauvage is going to be all about. Thick mechanical grooves, the group's signature pick-scrape technique, and a long melodic outro are what await you; they all fit nicely and lead to that certain blend of aggression and catharsis that Gojira excel at creating. Other songs that fall neatly into that category include the fantastic "The Gift of Guilt" and late-album highlight "Born in Winter". The former is quite close stylistically to The Way of All Flesh as it channels a lot of the same doomy vibes and foreboding melodies, and the result is a beautiful piece that's equal parts turbulent and poetic. The latter, meanwhile, might be one of the most experimental songs Gojira had done up to this point. The entire track is built around a framework of harmonically complex tapping and a soft ambiance, both of which make the eventual climax even more powerful than it otherwise would have been.

The members themselves are still going strong here in terms of both technical ability and chemistry. As per usual, Mario Duplantier remains the most impressive player in the group as he continues to experiment with interesting patterns and out-of-the-box ideas. Nothing he does on L'Enfant Sauvage is as ridiculous as the 45/16-time insanity he pulls on "The Art of Dying" off the previous album, but there are still some pretty cool moments here. Check out the amazing crescendoing bass rolls he does during the climax of "Explosia", or the crazy tempo changes that constantly keep "Planned Obsolescence" interesting. Joe Duplantier and Christian Andreu remain a tight unit on the guitar front as well, never really showing off but always serving the tight grooves nicely with their precise and heavy-as-hell riffs. The only person who gets a slightly raw deal here is Jean-Michel Labadie, whose bass playing is much less noticeable than on previous albums. It's not that he disappeared entirely, but I don't think it helps when the production is drowning him out a bit this time around.

The one element that drags this record below its immediate predecessors, however, lies in the songs that are just kinda? "there". To put it plainly, there are a handful of tracks here that don't elicit much of a reaction, the biggest examples being the title track and "The Axe". The former really doesn't deserve to bear the name of the album, as it just chugs along in a dull fashion with one-note riffs and a really boring bridge section. Joe sounds great vocally, but the music itself drags him down with its lack of creativity. "The Axe", however, doesn't go anywhere meaningful at all. The intense double bass-driven intro is promising, but it soon gets dragged into the mire of slow chugs and uninspired vocal passages. And unfortunately, it just stays at a slow burn without ever using any tonal or dynamic shifts to keep things interesting. It's a shame that these two songs are placed back-to-back, as it ruins the flow after such a powerful opener like "Explosia". And as I stated prior, the overarching sense of safety, while making the record consistent, also makes it duller than the band's previous outings. The feeling of "been there, done that" is pretty strong when listening to it.

Again, that still doesn't make it bad in the slightest. L'Enfant Sauvage is still a stellar record for the most part; it just needed a bit more adventurousness and diversity to spice it up a bit. Considering the two albums that followed, I think it's safe to say that this was a bit of a transitional album of sorts. It serves as the bridge between the group's more intense, technical offerings like From Mars to Sirius and the simpler, sparser arrangements of Magma and Fortitude; it's also arguably the band's most consistent album, which has to count for something. So at the end of the day, L'Enfant Sauvage is still an excellent piece of work and a great gateway album for people who are still on the fence about diving into Gojira's music for the first time. Trust me, it's worth it.

Report this review (#1445851)
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2015 | Review Permalink
4 stars This was my first entry to Gojira's no vast discography and it impressed me more than their 00's albums. Gojira is one of the few genuine progressive metal bands along with Opeth, partly Enslaved. These bands almost never rest on their laurels and aspire for continuous search for innovation and greatness. Though I don't count to big fans of Gojira due to their metalcore and thrash influence, I acknowledge their chops in playing and creating ultra-complex precise riff-driven extreme metal. This album is not an easy task to get familiar with; though there are some less intensive moments that will stay in your memory faster. The main selling points for me here are the flexible rhythm section and loads of good riffs. These can be ominous, melody-friendly or less dominant. For a shallow listener, this music may sound repetitive but going under surface will reveal more variety in the music execution. My favourite tracks are the title one with a higher degree of accessibility, "The gift of guilt" with progressive structure, jaw-dropping riffs. However if you listen closely and you are a musician or a vivid listener, you will find plenty of inspired and enriching moments on this album. The only thing I wish for - band trying also other progressive styles and adding more guitar solos. And I hope to see them live one day.
Report this review (#3084022)
Posted Tuesday, August 20, 2024 | Review Permalink

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