If you’re gonna sound like another band, Gojira aren’t such a bad band to choose — unlike so many other oft-worshipped bands (At the Gates, Meshuggah, etc), Gojira haven’t quite reached the level of ubiquity where imitation has become widespread and annoying. At least not yet. Here are three decent Gojira-inspired bands sent in by our readers:

• Trepalium: Like Gojira but with more of a hip-shaking swagger. If Gojira sound like “elephants marching” as Axl likes to say, than Trepalium are something like elephants skipping in unison (but no less heavy). They even toured with Gojira in France last year. [Thanks: Gideon, for a hilariously stoned email]
• Grenouer: Gojira-meets-Meshuggah death metal from Russia played with surprising aptitude.
• Aabsinthe: The production, guitar riffs and vocal delivery remind me a whole lot of Gojira, and though Aabsinthe are pretty damn good they’re not quite as intricate/interesting as the original. I swear I thought up the Gojira comparison before I realized these dudes were from France. [Thanks: Vegard]

-VN

Mere hours before Gojira played the best show of 2009, our friends at Metal Injection interview G to the Jira main man Joe Duplantier, and even got him to pick his favorite metal videos. No shock: the man has good taste. So, needless to say, this is pretty awesome.

Vince’s own interview with Joe should go up sometime next week. You’ll wanna read that, too. Trust me.

-AR