GOJIRA

"L'Enfant Sauvage (2012)" and especially "Magma (2016)" saw Gojira going down a slightly more accessible and less progressive road with more easily recognisable vers/chorus structures and in the case of the latter the addition of some clean vocals. "Fortitude" is the natural continuation of that tendency as it´s also a relatively accessible release featuring both clean vocals and raw shouted vocals. The tracks are also vers/chorus structured and relatively easy to follow, although Gojira are at times a little more adventurous and add some semi-progressive ideas to their material. Gojira are known for their use of heavy syncopated riffs and rhythms are those are present here too, but "Fortitude" is also a very atmospheric album and in some cases a very melodic album. Mid-90s Sepultura isn´t the worst reference if you need one (especially the percussion driven "Amazonia" points in that direction), but Gojira have by now forged a sound of their own.

Highlights include the heavy opener "Born for One Thing", and the equally heavy tracks "Sphinx" and "Grind", but melodic tracks like "The Chant" and "The Trails", which at times remind me of the most heavy and hard edged material by Soundgarden or something in that vein, are also great for the variation of the album, and the diversity of the material is definitely one of the great strengths of "Fortitude". It´s an album which is intriguing and dynamic all the way through the 11 track, 51:52 minutes long playing time. Gojira don´t focus all their energy on technical playing and progressive structures anymore, and to my ears their more simple and stripped down songwriting approach works well for them. Simple in this respect should of course not be understood as if Gojira have lost any of their incredible playing skills, because they are as well playing/singing as ever, but they´ve stripped their playing and their compositions down to the essence, and that approach suits them well.

"Fortitude" features a powerful, organic, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly. Upon conclusion "Fortitude" is another high quality release by Gojira, which shows progression towards a more accessible yet dynamic sound, but still sounds unmistakably like Gojira. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

It's been a five year break since "Magma" and the metal world has changed a lot getting even weirder and more diverse but somehow GORJIRA continues the path of exploring new sonic textures while maintaining the energetic chugging drive, extraordinary musical dexterity and metal hybridism. What's new on FORTITUDE is that the band takes the previous alternative metal approach that debuted on "Magma" and branches out into myriad directions thus creating a delightful mix of moods, dynamics and rhythmic bombast unlike any other album in its canon. While the progressive excesses of the first two albums have long been tamped down as well as the epic progressive feel of the following pair of albums that followed, FORTITUDE still stays connected to all those previous eras while exploring a more varied range of timbres, tones, echo effects and production values.

While many have long written off this band as some sort of sellout, i personally find these later albums to be quite dynamic as they provide instantly catchy metal hooks in the classic sense while exploring various detours into moments of clean vocal progressive rock, Pantera-esque groove metal as well as the intense urgency of a Rage Against The Machine album most likely courtesy of engineer Andy Wallace who worked with that band as well as Nirvana thus giving that angry 90s grunge feel at times. And of course it wouldn't be a GOJIRA album without a plethora of polyrhythms where barrages of guitar riffs, pummeling percussion and bantering bass grooves provide crushing metal monstrosities while Joe Duplantier brazenly belts out his soul crushing screams.

Perhaps the most noticeable difference for FORTITUDE is the production and the heavy uses of atmospheres which provides the perfect counterpoint to the galloping grooving guitar riffs and the incessant guitar sailing that accompanies. As far as tempo changes go, FORTITUDE may not embrace the chaotic free-for-all proggy complexities as "Terra Incognita" and "The Link" but still manages to squeeze in a few oddball time signatures between the steady rhythmic drive as well as delivering extreme curve balls as heard on the tribal percussion dominated title track accompanied by unorthodox wordless vocal harmonizing which actually serves as an intro to the following track "The Chant."

When all is said and done i can totally understand why many may not be too thrilled with these easier listening experiences of GOJIRA when compared to the epic and experimental sounds of yore but as far as an accessible melodic metal album is concerned, GOJIRA does an excellent job keeping FORTITUDE engaging from beginning to end in my book. These songs are not only catchy but crafty and creative with subtleties that may require a few spins before really sinking in. I think i actually prefer this one to "Magma" as that previous album didn't quite have the repeat visit enjoyability but this one has just enough ear wormy hooks to signify a respite into its majesty! While i wouldn't call FORTITUDE my all time GOJIRA album by any means, i'm actually quite surprise how much i love this one. What will this monstrous band come up with next? Will we have to wait another five years? Chances are a new phase of the band will begin.

For instance, the main riff of "Another World" is pretty cool; Christian Andreu's lead guitar and Jean-Michel Labadie's bass coil around each other to give off a strangely futuristic atmosphere. But then it all falls apart in the verses, which just consist of a boring chugging riff that doesn't go anywhere interesting. It's nice to hear Joe Duplantier still bringing the energy with his screams and growls, but they don't matter much when the material itself is so lacking in heft and intensity. Meanwhile, some songs don't even sound like they came from Gojira at all. When the a cappella harmonies of "Hold On" started, I had to look at my phone to make sure I was still listening to the same band. Indeed, Joe does perform a lot more clean vocals on Fortitude - these are most prominently heard on "Hold On", "The Chant", and "The Trails". And, truth be told, Duplantier has really proven himself to be a capable clean vocalist over the last five years or so. The harmonies in "Hold On" are actually quite beautiful, despite the fact that the song eventually switches to a more typical groovy Gojira track halfway through.

What really drags this album down more than everything else, however, is the production. It's quite strange that Duplantier is the same person who produced Way of All Flesh, as Fortitude has none of the same weight, atmosphere, or clarity in its mix. The guitars sound both muddy and unappealing in the chugging bits (the verses of "Amazonia" for instance), and really flavorless during the melodic sections ("The Trails" in particular). It also does no favors for Mario Duplantier, especially during the more technical tracks like "Grind" and "Into the Storm". He performs some pretty amazing parts during these songs, but all I can think of is how much better they'd sound with a From Mars to Sirius- esque production job. Speaking of "Into the Storm", that very song represents what kind of record Fortitude could have been; the track is a perfect mix of the band's more heavy/technical traits and their melodic tendencies. Sure, the main drum part was lifted from "The Cell" off of Magma to an extent, but the riff played over it is one of the most beautifully melancholic parts I've ever heard from this group.

Fortitude is a strange affair, as its oddities tend to come from Gojira's push toward a more simplistic and mainstream sound. On one hand, I suppose that makes it a logical step after the stripped-down music of Magma; on the other hand, it just doesn't feel natural for some reason. The band's willingness to step outside of their comfort zone is commendable, but if they're keen on committing to this new sound of theirs, they need to give it a little more polish and focus. As it stands, Fortitude is a decent metal record. However, it doesn't really offer anything that Gojira's prior albums haven't done better.

The intro to Ocean Planet conveys the album effectively, with ambient whale noises leading into heavy, droning guitar chords with intense, powerful drumming creating a wall of sound with the only semblance of melody coming from Joe Duplantier's vocals. I find the vocals to be really great in general, having the rough qualities of screaming while still being properly sung to allow some melody. Backbone manages to be even better, coming in with a simple, yet killer riff that keeps switching between groove and instrumental insanity, all culminating in an utter freakout after the first minute that just keeps going on and on, backed up with a solid blast beat. This is definitely one of the better songs on the album, as the main riff sounds so good, and the instrumental interludes are nothing short of incredible. The album continues in a similar fashion, having an extremely unified, groovy, spacey sound. Notable songs are From The Sky, which has a more powerful, epic feel to it, especially the epic chorus and Unicorn, which is absolutely beautiful and enjoyable despite being a minute long interlude.

The best songs on the album however are undoubtedly The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe and Flying Whales. The former starts off guns blazing with a downright labyrinthine riff that never seems to slow down, even when it becomes more traditional in nature, it's still absolutely brutal, all culminating into one of the few uses of clean vocals in the entire album, slowly building in intensity until it completely explodes, leading straight into what I consider to be one of the greatest extreme metal songs out there. Flying Whales begins with a simple, light, yet deeply atmospheric riff, using light guitar tones to set the stage for what's to come. The other elements are slowly introduced, a simple drumbeat combined with a light bassline and whale noises throughout. I love the way this continues for over two minutes, sounding incredible throughout, before it slows down, cuts out, and then a semblance of metal comes in the form of layered guitars in the back that then burst in with an incredibly heavy riff that you'd be very talented to not want to start headbanging to. Not a moment of this song feels wasted or misused, continuing the single riff for quite a while, only breaking it up with with a buildup to the explosion of "Now I can see the whales", all before it becomes chaotic, introducing riff after riff, each more impressive than the last, never letting the listener have a moment of reprieve until the very end, making an absolutely perfect song in every respect.

However, despite the near perfect first side of the album, past Flying Whales does drop off a bit, partially because the listener will be recovering from the rush that the song gave them, but also just because the album has a very set sound that never really varies too much. World To Come is definitely my least favourite song here, as their attempt to have a more melodic song here ends up missing its mark quite considerably and sounding very lifeless. Fortunately, the other attempt of making a more melodic song works absolute wonders, as Global Warming closes off the album in a breathtaking fashion, using a fadeout to absolutely amazing effect and being so emotional.

It's honestly quite unfortunate that the rest of the songs on this side, while definitely not being bad for the most part, just don't sound interesting after already listening to the previous 40 minutes of similar sounding music, leading to it becoming somewhat exhausting. Overall, while I really do love this album in many respects, I believe it should have been cut down by quite a bit. Despite this, the high points are undoubtedly incredible, and I would definitely recommend this album to those who like groove metal and incredibly atmospheric, spacey, ultimately gigantic sounding songs, and find this a good entry point into the band.

Best songs: Backbone, The Heaviest Matter of the Universe, Global Warming, FLying Whales (this one especially)

Weakest songs: World To Come

Verdict: I can't think of listening to an album quite so massive as this one. The majority of riffs are ewual parts spine crushing and awesome, and no matter how many times I listen to it, that production and overall sound is always what impresses me the most about the band. While it can drag in places, I have little doubt in my mind that this is an absolutely great album.

Gojira have always surprised me with their albums, from Mars to Sirius to me, was a journey of whales, oceanplanets, space and planet exploration to global warming. I was instantly hooked. This is an album with a huge song list of metal and I loved every one of them. Yet, if I choose a favorite it would be Global Warming Flying whales, which was the epitome of this exceptional album.

I do not know what to say other than everyone must listen to this album.

While still Godzilla, the band cranked out several demos that clearly showed their ties to the thrash metal world of early Metallica, the groove metal world of Pantera and the early thrash likings of Slayer and Sepultura. Somewhere around the time of the name change to GOJIRA though, something happened with the addition of Labadie and the band found an effectively unique chemistry which allowed them to hone their craft rather quickly. TERRA INCOGNITA expands beyond the Morbid Angel death metal with thrash and groove elements and adds alternative, some industrial and even enters progressive metal territory although on this debut they would not be fully ripe in that department for a couple more albums. Despite the lack thereof in comparison to future releases however there are many signs of unorthodox compositional constructs, interesting time signature changes and playful polyrhythms laced with tempo shifts and unexpected deviations from the norm.

While later more progressive albums such as 'From Mars To Sirius' embark on highly progressive workouts wrapped up in a cloak of conceptual storytelling, TERRA INCOGNITA is more of a collection of extreme art metal tracks that are often stylistically unrelated but nevertheless provide glimpses into the expanding progressive tentacles reaching out in myriad directions. Tracks vary in style and approach but crunchy alternative metal riffing in tandem with death metal blastbeat drum abuse is a common strategy for eking out the extreme aggressive fury that GOJIRA so deftly crafts into metal magic none of which is absent on album number one. TERRA INCOGNITA is laced with addictive guitar riffs that are repetitive in nature but vary distinctly from one track with some being bantering bass lines and others registering high in the upper treble range. The bass often provides a groovy counterpoint to the guitar riffing and Mario Duplantier's drumming skills are of the highest magnitude as he attacks the skins in a multitude of playing styles ranging from the straight forward metal beat to full-fledged jazz infused technical workouts.

While Joe Duplantier's vocals typically are utilized in the growly death metal style, he occasionally contrasts with clean vocals as well as semi-spoken segments. I seem to be on the opposite side of the fence than most regarding GOJIRA's under appreciated debut release TERRA INCOGNITA. True that it is not as sophisticated as the more illustrious masterpieces that would follow but taken on its own, this is one extremely tight unit of one brilliant track after another. There is a more freeform 'anything goes' approach to TERRA INCOGNITA. There is the instrumental workout on '04' which takes a siesta away from the death metal brutality and creates a counterpoint workout on strings (as well as other ambient breaks), there is the Korn-esque nu metal sound heard on 'Blow Me Away You(NIVERSE)' as well the strange hypno-space trance interlude of '5988 Trillions De Tonnes.' Also on board is the strange alternative / thrash riffing hybridization of 'Space Time' and bizarre guitar licks that begin tracks such as 'On The B.O.T.A.' GOJIRA really knew how to mix and match various metal elements that leave you wondering exactly what's going on. While this is death metal at its core, it is so much more varied than the average band in the genre. Perhaps too weird for the uninitiated but if you approach this more as extreme death art metal than you would be on the right track. I find this one to be underrated and misunderstood. Excellent debut by this one of a kind band from France! I really love listening to this one.

Stylistically there have been a few changes since "L'Enfant Sauvage (2012)", although Gojira´s trademark progressive/groove metal style is overall intact. This time around lead vocalist/guitarist Joe Duplantier experiments quite a bit with clean vocals in addition to his more regular raw vocals, and that is pretty new in Gojira´s musical universe, and it has a great impact on the band´s sound on "Magma". The tracks are also generally a bit more simple and atmospheric compared to the more riff heavy and often relatively complex structured material of the past.

The change is heard right from the opening track "The Shooting Star", which is quite an atmospheric slow building track featuring clean vocals. "Silvera" follows and is a much more riff heavy and aggressive track though (the main riff is absolutely killer), so it´s not all mellow and melancholic atmospheres. Even the more heavy tracks like "Silvera" and "Only Pain", feature a good portion of atmospheric parts though. Other noteworthy tracks include "Stranded", which features quite the distinct sounding pitchshifter riff ("Only Pain" actually features a very similar sounding riff), and the atmospheric title track, but "Magma" is generally a consistent high quality release.

"Magma" features a powerful and detailed sound production, which suits the material well, and upon conclusion, it´s another intriguing and adventurous release by Gojira. Compared to the preceding releases by the band, it´s a lot more accessible and instantly catchy, and I think that´ll win them a new audience, but don´t make the mistake of thinking this is mainstream hook laden material, because that´s after all not true. There´s still a good degree of complexity in the songwriting and execution of the music, which should ensure that older fans of the band, should be able to enjoy it too. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Gojira remain crushingly heavier than the vast majority of "commercial" metal bands today. That said, Magma lends the impression they've come closer to quiet introspection than ever before. With that, I get the mixed reaction from fans. For whatever reason, I'm reminded of the way The Mars Volta reinvented themselves in 2009 with Octahedron; they're simply taking their essential style down a more subdued path than we're used to hearing from them.

This has been the most interesting time to talk about Gojira at least since the release of The Way of All Flesh in 2008. They had fallen off my personal radar for a few years, and I haven't been enamoured as much with From Mars to Sirius and The Way of All Flesh since around the time the two came out. A polarized reception like Magma's, if anything, seemed like a sign that Gojira might be reinventing themselves in a way that could make them exciting again. A more melodic, atmospheric and airy album could not possibly have been popular with their fanbase, but that's not to say they don't do it really well.

Of any of Gojira's albums, this is definitely the biggest grower-type they've yet released. Because it's not as intensely heavy and urgent as the others, the layers take more time to grow. Considering I've always considered that their sheer heaviness was one of Gojira's best, it really is refreshing to hear them without those extremes. From this, their other defining traits come through more clearly. Their massive-sounding atmosphere still makes it sound like they're recording in an underwater cavern, the progressive grooves are extremely hooky, and the melodic accents carry their weight several times over. Gojira have effectively channelled the same urgency in tighter confines. The writing isn't quite as consistent as it could have been, but there's more than enough solid material here to suggest their change of pace was a good idea.

The mellower (at least relative to past work) approach works well for Gojira's subject this time around. Although their music's almost always related to their personal convictions, Magma draws the music even closer to home. The Duplantier brothers' loss of their mother affected and moved them a ton; it would be more surprising if their next album hadn't been inspired at least in part by that experience. From this, Gojira's most powerful lyrics have inevitably stemmed; even if their clean vocals aren't quite strong enough to deserve such a prominent role on the album, the words and lyrics are powerful enough to sell it through. Even if Magma was inspired by a real-life loss, they still manage to touch upon grander ideas: the afterlife, the loss of love, and the will to carry on in spite of pain. They're not the sort of lyrics you can fully appreciate on paper alone; the music's celestial atmosphere is what gives the words their spiritual weight.

There are a few fantastic songs here. "The Shooting Star" is a slowburning opener that quickly impresses the fact upon the listener that they're in for a subdued Gojira. "Silvera" was the first song I checked out from the album, and it's still probably my favourite, with punchy dark riffs that sound like they were drawn from The Way of All Flesh. "Stranded" has one of the coolest-sounding riffs I've ever heard from the band, and "Low Lands" is a solid way to climax the album, trailed afterwards by the gently acoustic "Liberation". Although the album has definitely grown on me over the course of listens, I have started to feel that Magma is conspicuously frontloaded when it comes to its quality material. All of the songs here are solid, but I find a harder time in remembering great moments from the second half of the record. I support Gojira's subdued evolution, but the lack of standouts nonetheless puts this below their best work. Other than that, there are no gripes to be had with the band's softer approach. The same intensity as always is here-- it just takes a bit more digging on the part of the listener to get it.