By: Chris Ball
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Released on June 17, 2016 via Roadrunner Records
The promotion of Gojira into the Premier League of metal bands has seemed a fait accompli even before the release of new album Magma. The early marker laid down by single ‘Stranded’ certainly helped, with its killer riff, simpler, less technical structure and powerfully persuasive chorus, sung by Joe Duplantier in a style which ditched a lot of the death metal asperity for a cleaner, easier on the ear, but equally passionate roar
In truth though, Gojira are exactly the sort of metal band many fans of the genre have been crying out for. Metal has diversified and expanded its palette beyond any visible horizon, but although this diversity has allowed musicians of a fantastically broad church to flourish, few have combined musical progression, major commercial success and a new, less nihilistic worldview. The last batch of arena-filling metal bands were spawned from nu metal, and though they certainly bought fresh sounds and a new introspective and autobiographical element to their lyrics, the machismo and self loathing grew tiring pretty quickly for all but their most die-hard followers. What metal has been crying out for is leaders, new heroes with a new sensibility who reflect the ideals and concerns of the post millennial age: essentially a band who recognised and reflected the fact the there are a lot of smart, liberal people who love heavy music and are hungry for a band who can elevate metal to a platform above and beyond the tropes of sex, violence and fantasy.
Gojira with their environmentally concerned lyrics, atypically tasteful yet earthy artwork and liberal aesthetic have been a lot of people’s dark horses for world domination ever since 2008’s The Way of All Flesh. Follow up L’Enfant Sauvage certainly didn’t lessen the expectation, but realistically their, up-to-that-point, trademark ‘plummeting metal’ style of airless, super technical death metal was possibly too foreboding for mass appeal, even for a scene that elevated Slipknot to superstar status. And whilst fans will still find much of Magma familiar, (your mum isn’t likely to start humming along to ‘Only Pain’ or ‘The Cell’), Gojira have left a lot more space in their sound and allowed a more optimistic light to enter their lyrics, despite the record being recorded in the aftermath of personal tragedy.
The key lyric here is probably the already much quoted “when you change yourself you change the world” from the brilliant ‘Silvera’. That, on paper, quite trite message, when combined with a quite dazzling musical setting of soaring mass vocals and crushing, epic riffs mixes a feeling of mission statement and steely eyed pep talk. Whereas in the past Gojira’s lyrics sometimes felt like angry reports from a lost cause, many of the songs here have the energy of great rallying cries and indeed ‘Pray’ has the defiant “no faith in your world, create my own” as a refrain, as if Gojira intend to will a better world into existence. These messages are of course a lot easier to pick up on too when you have Joe Duplantier singing cleanly instead of affecting the standard death metal growls. His voice is by no means remarkable, but the new style is more akin to chanting, especially on the verses of title track ‘Magma’, and it has the, no doubt, desired affect of making the lyrics seem fervent and ingrained with wisdom.
The musical performances throughout are technically breathtaking, the unearthly little guitar riffs of Joe and superhuman drumming of Mario Duplantier are faultless and endlessly inventive, but it is probably the quieter, instrumental numbers that are the surprise here – chiefly ‘Liberation’, the closing number, which sounds like a gorgeous little reverie conjured up from the fingers of Rodrigo Y Gabriela, plaintive notes are picked out on acoustic guitar as tablas give warm support.
Make no mistake, Gojira have created a very good new album in Magma, but is it a truly great album? A modern classic? I’m still living with it and coming to terms with it, but as of yet it doesn’t sound like a bona fide masterpiece. However, I don’t think that really matters as it seems Gojira’s time is come. I hope they enjoy the ride and don’t fuck it up.
