Gojira – Magma

By Andrew Bansal

gojira-magma

French progressive extreme metal quartet Gojira have enjoyed a meteoric rise since the release of their fifth LP ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’ (2012) and the globally reaching touring cycle that subsequently came with it. But this was no sellout move by any means, and they achieved all of this success by progressing vastly as songwriters within a short period of time, striking the right balance between complexity and accessibility. In existence since ’96 (and since 2001 under this name), Gojira have made a distinct statement with each album and have never made the same album twice. So, when it was time for follow-up to ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’, it was unanimously expected of Gojira to not only retain their newfound popularity, but also to deliver the goods on all fronts in a manner that would satiate their longtime fans as well as expand their outreach in equal measure. Enter Gojira’s sixth full-length effort ‘Magma’, slated for a June 17 2016 release via Roadrunner Records.

For starters, this is Gojira’s shortest album till date in terms of duration, clocking in a little short of 44 minutes, in stark contrast to some of their previous efforts such as the 2008 release ‘The Way Of All Flesh’ (75 minutes) and the 2001 debut ‘Terra Incognita’ (66 minutes). This seems like a conscious effort on the band’s part, as based upon a few thorough listens of ‘Magma’, it’s clear that they’ve attained greater mastery over their creative skills and are able to express their musical range within shorter spans of time. ‘Magma’ begins with ‘The Shooting Star’, a track that succeeds in establishing a quintessentially bleak, otherworldly vibe that’s so typical of Gojira’s musicianship and so identifiable as their own. With slow and measured hard-hitting riffs and pinch harmonics, to go with excellent delivery of clean vocals, and the kind of tempo and rhythmic patterns that build tension and anticipation in the listener’s mind, this is a stellar opening tune, and leads into the even more powerful ‘Silvera’ wherein the guitar work truly dominates with both the riffs, melodies and solos, while the vocals vary between clean and harsh. This tune has the power to haunt your mind endlessly, long after you’re done listening to it. Only two tracks in, and ‘Magma’ is already worthy of being deemed a runaway success.

Gojira 2016 - Pub 1 - Travis Shinn - LoRes

The album forms a vice-like grip through its next few tracks that exhibit tremendous variety and range, with the progressive, drum-centric composition ‘The Cell’, the groove-heavy ‘Stranded’, and the mellow bass-driven 80-second piece ‘Yellow Stone’, before arriving at its centerpiece, the title track itself which is arguably the finest creation on this album as it perfectly encapsulates every musical aspect that decorates this set of tunes and distinguishes it from Gojira’s past work. This album possesses unmatchable firepower in these first six tracks but its latter half is just about as good or better than anything released in a long, long time.’Pray’ and ‘Only Pain’ come across as extremely crushing, bestial tunes, while ‘Low Lands’ switches gears and serves as the most melodic song on the album, and ‘Magma’ comes to an end with ‘Liberation’, a piece merely comprising of sounds emitting from a combination of acoustic guitar and hand percussion. This is truly an ‘album cut’, as when listened to in isolation, this piece couldn’t possibly be associated with a band like Gojira.

The fact that they’ve maintained the same group of members since 2001, and show no signs of parting ways any time soon, is no small component in Gojira’s steady musical progression and resultant success. For brothers Joe (guitar, vocals) and Mario Duplantier (drummer) along with guitarist Christian Andreu and bassist Jean-Michel Labadie, working in unison clearly comes as second nature, and the quartet has done it again, rising far above their peers, competitors and mentors and striking gold with ‘Magma’. The songwriting is more precise than ever, the performance on all instruments is exemplary, the production is perfect, and as always, the usage of down-tuning and pinch harmonics in the guitar play is absolutely top-class, to the extent that other world-renowned guitar players that are hell-bent on destroying all that is good about these elements should take lessons from Gojira’s guitar duo.

As a metal album in the year 2016, Gojira’s ‘Magma’ is quite simply second to none.

Rating: 10/10

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Record Label: Roadrunner
Release Date: June 17th 2016

Track Listing:
01. The Shooting Star
02. Silvera
03. The Cell
04. Stranded
05. Yellow Stone
06. Magma
07. Pray
08. Only Pain
09. Low Lands
10. Liberation

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