Metal… Politics… Environmentalism… Spiritualism… Unnhh unnhhh…
… ahhhhhh.
-VN
[via HardTimes.ca]
(See also: Axl’s review of The Way of All Flesh and the video for “Vacuity.”)
My man-crush on Gojira’s Joe Duplantier just got even larger. Not only is the man largely responsible for one of the best records of the year, but Duplantier continues to prove himself an all-around good dude, responsible citizen of planet earth and flag-waver of humanity. The man’s environmentalist sentiments are pretty well known and have been covered in this space before, but in a recent guest blog for Headbanger’s Blog, the level-headed Duplantier comes off sounding like the Dalai Lama:
Things are heating up in the U.S. presidential race, and everyone from Vince to Axl to Dallas to the Blogronaut expressed their opinions; naturally you all got fired up too. But even politics as usual couldn’t stop the flow of happenings this week in the world of metal:
We out. See you Monday.
Do you know how to say “brutal” in French? Brutal. True story. Six years of French. Suck it, bitches.
ANYWAY, The Way of All Flesh may not be the most br00tal album of the year, but it’s certainly the most vicious. L’album le plus méchant de l’anée. Hooky but heavy, proggy but not pretentious, and French but not froggy, The Way of All Flesh instantly jumps ahead of this year’s melodic death metal pack.
The economy’s in the shitter and the sun is setting earlier and earlier every day. Still, there was reason to rejoice this week in the world of metal:
Sayonara suckers. See you next week.
-VN
The video for “Vacuity,” the first single off of Gojira’s ball-achingly awesome new album The Way of All Flesh, has been released, and I have to say, I love the image of the woman dragging the giant, heavy box along the road. ‘Cause I like to imagine it’s full of the music from Gojira’s new album, and that’s why it’s so friggin’ heavy.
The Way of All Flesh hits stores next week.
-AR
In case you’ve missed it, Gojira have been streaming most of their new album The Way of All Flesh on their MySpace page for the past couple of days. I recommend the opening track “Oroborus” (which is oddly listed 11th on the MySpace player) as a suitable introduction to the pandemonium. Not that you could really go wrong no matter which song you choose.
Please allow me to be the 1,678th to say it: this album is fucking great, a completely satisfying and worthy follow-up to 2006’s artfully crushing From Mars to Sirius. Like, definitely-gonna-be-on-my-year-end-top-albums-list great. Like, probably-even-gonna-make-it-onto-a-lot-of-non-metal-year-end-lists-too great (for some reason Pitchfork types seem to have a hard on for this band too).
In short: it’s fucking phenomenal. Few bands find ways to be truly original in the over-cluttered metal climate of 2008 (those who regularly read this site know which other bands I think have succeeded in this regard), and dawgonnit, Gojira have done it. They’re mavericks.
-VN
I love metal, and I love the environment. So when I read a rant by the frontman of one of the most brutal, crushing bands in existence extolling the merits of environmentalism I got a little stiffy in my pants. It’s well-publicized that Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier is an outspoken environmentalist, but this excerpt from a recent interview with Zero Tolerance Magazine sealed the deal for me that Duplantier is a member of the true, not-saying-this-shit-to-be-trendy camp:
“I feel… terrified and very sad about what’s happening on earth right now,” he says. “I feel deeply — and I’m not the only one, a lot of people and everyone in the band agrees — I really mean it, it’s not to be trendy or whatever, because it’s true. We are destroying a lot of things, we are killing endangered species — we are killing sharks, we are killing whales and that’s an aberration to me. I cannot help it, when I get in the practice room and we play this music that is so powerful and stuff, I start screaming about it, I cannot help it.
Even though I’m not such a fan of In Flames’ latest album A Sense of Purpose, I will always love this band to death. The album wasn’t bad by any means, but it definitely falls well below the level of metal the band are capable of making, and ultimately when I’m fixin’ for the kings of Swedish melodeath I’m gonna grab Clayman, Colony or even Come Clarity before I grab this one.
But anyway, the band just released a video for the song “Alias” from that album; like the song itself, the video gets a solid “meh” from me. But like I said, I love this band, and I’ll listen to/watch anything they do. Including going to see them live; for my money they’re one of the best live bands of the past 15 years, hands down. You can bet your ass I’ll be rockin’ out hard fan-boy style when they tour the U.S. with All That Remains, Gojira, and 36 Crazyfists this winter (full list of tour dates after the jump).
“Vacuity,” the new song by Gojira, might be my favorite kind of metal song – something that’s got more weight than Kim Kardashian’s ass but is as catchy as Paris Hilton’s herpes. Like the very best songs by everyone from Metallica to Pantera to Lamb of God, Gojira have written something that never, ever sacrifices hooks for give-you-a-concussion heaviness. You can’t help but fucking head bang to this shit – the pounding march of the rhythm section demands that you head bang, God damn it.
God bless YouTube and shitty camera phones. Here’s some ass-quality, fan-filmed video footage of Gojira performing a new song called “Vacuity” last week at the Rock en France festival. The track is supposedly from their new album The Way of All Flesh which is slated for an October 13th release via Listenable Records.
The quality is total shite, but it’s new Gojira, right? It kind of sounds like elephants marching and is probably about how our planet is doomed or something. GO-JIR-AHHHH!
-VN
[Thanks: Christopher L.]
Here I was, along with the rest of the metal literati, heaping praise upon Gojira for their sheer brutality and awesome originality. If ever there was a band in today’s metal scene that was completely different, this was it. Or so I thought until I took the advice of longtime MetalSucks maniac Hibernum and listened to the UK death metal band Mithras.
News flash: Gojira isn’t that original.
Don’t get me wrong; From Mars to Sirius was a fucking excellent album worthy of (nearly) all the praise that it got, the band destroys live and there are certainly plenty of things Gojira does that are original. But let’s give credit where it’s due.
Many of the things that are Gojira’s trademarks were ripped straight from the Mithras handbook. Their overall sense of tonality and riff structure, the full-chord pick scrapes, use of pinched harmonics in a very specific manner, vocal approach…
Listen for yourself. (I recommend “Wrath of God” to illustrate my point.).
-VN
2006 was a landmark year for metal whatwith future-classic records from Lamb of God and Mastodon (among others) and the breaking of everyone’s favorite underground French metal band, Gojira, onto the international metal scene. When Axl and I were in England for Download Festival that summer, we read a spot in Kerrang that listed Gojira as a must-see for the event. Figuring we had nothing to lose we checked them out, and we were not disappointed. We saw them again opening for Children of Bodom and Amon Amarth here in the States at the very same show that spawned the idea for this website, and FUCK, do these Frenchmen know how to bring it live.
Their 2006 record From Mars to Sirius was one of the most strikingly brutal and original albums to come out that year, and boy are we psyched to hear what they come up with next. Blabbermouth reports that Gojira are finishing up writing for their next record we type, and are planning to enter the studio in April for a projected Fall release. It’s sure to be a little while since Joe Duplantier has to fulfill touring obligations for Cavalera Conspiracy, but still: time to get excited yet?
Check out Kip’s “Saturday Song to Get Stoned To” column last month featuring Gojira, and check out the band’s MySpace page too while you’re at. It will improve your day that much.
-VN
I’m really, really impressed with Inflikted, the debut (if you don’t count Sepultura) album from Cavalera Conspiracy.
Unfortunately, the new cover art for the album sucks even worse than the old cover art:
Okay, remember when Sepultura used to have freaky, scary, horrific, bad ass metal cover art? So why the fuck does this album have some modern-art Devo shit? It’s a good thing the album is actually good…
Thanks to MetalSucks reader Morizz for the tip!
-AR
I’m feeling ready to be not so cynical about the Cavalera Conspiracy, the new Sepultura semi-reunion between brothers Max and Igor Cavalera (Soulfly’s Marc Rizzo and Gojira’s Joe Duplantier round out the line-up on guitar and bass, respectively). And why, pray tell, am I feeling so generous towards the band these days? Well, it’s cause these just released tracks, “Sanctuary” and “Inflikted” actually sound more or less exactly the way I wanted them to, which is to say: they sound an awful lot like good ol’ school Sepultura. Yes, it seems that the shitty band name, cheap album art, deliberate “hip” misspellings and other general shenanigans were bad omens not to be taken seriously… although I suppose the complete album could still totally suck.
Download the tracks below and let us know what you think.
The Cavalera Conspiracy – “Sanctuary”
The Cavalera Conspiracy – “Inflikted”
-AR
As you probably well know by now, the brothers Cavalera of the legendary Sepultura have a new album coming out under the Cavalera Conspiracy moniker, featuring Max and Igor alongside Marc Rizzo (who played with Max in Soulfly) and Joe Duplantier (Gojira).
The album, called Inflikted, comes out on March 25 — but Mr. Arf has a lo-fi but listenable leak of the new song “Sanctuary.”
As you enjoy this track, channel the spirit of Martin Luther King on this fine holiday.
-VN
[Thanks to MetalSucks reader "UT2010" for the tip]
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