The purveyors of massive guitar tone. The mighty Gojira have very few rivals when it comes to chest pounding bass that can comfortably knock you off the road if you are crazy enough to listen to them through your car stereo. Ranking all Gojira albums is a tough task, but someone has to do it.
Starting life with their independent album Terra Incognita, it wasn’t until third album From Mars to Sirius that they hit the big time internationally. From there they have gone from strength to strength with their innovative composition, crushing tone and genius song writing. When you can recognise a Gojira song by a trademark pick scrape you know you have reached a height many cannot.
Terra Incognita
Gojira‘s debut album is raw and uncompromising. The production quality is nothing on later releases, and the destructive tone Gojira have laid claim to is missing. We get glimpses of the innovation that will in the future come to the show in spades. But there is much more death metal on display. This alone does not make it deserving of last on this list. And by no means is this a bad album, far from it. But Gojira have improved so much since their debut.
The Way of All Flesh
Are there many songs heavier than Vacuity? If you can name a handful I would be shocked. The Way of All Flesh has plenty of staggeringly good songs. The creepy tapped intro on album opener Oroborus first introduced us to this now Gojira staple. Lamb of God‘s Randy Blythe makes an appearance on Adoration for None. Overall however at 1 hour 15 minutes the album is a couple of songs too long and loses a little of it’s impact as a result.
The Link
A significant improvement from their debut album (and made it’s way onto this list as a result). The Link gave us the first taste of Gojira as we know today. A great improvement in tone and production quality overall. We still get plenty of the ‘indigenous’ feel on Connected and opener The Link. Much of their message is about protecting our environment so it fits perfectly into the overall aesthetic. Remembrance is the first time we get a textbook Gojira pulverising heavy track.
Magma
Gojira began their modern evolution on their 6th full length release Magma. Boasting a higher proportion of clean vocals and ambient tones, making the album more accessible as a result. Following the tragic passing of brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier‘s mother during recording you can feel the emotion throughout. At only 43 minutes it has followed a trend of Gojira albums getting shorter. But the heaviness and experimental nature remains intact.
Stranded and Silveria are examples of Gojira retaining this charm. Title track Magma and Pray give a one-two hit of a modern atmospheric, melodic sound from Gojira. We get straight back to the heavy on Only Pain. It’s incredible how they can change their style so drastically, yet feel entirely familiar. How many bands would have been called sell outs at this point? Not Gojira. They’re too brilliant for that.
Fortitude
With their seventh album, Gojira have produced another masterpiece. Fortitude feels like the natural progression between The Way Of All Flesh and Magma and is their most experimental album to date, The desolate, experimental tone present in The Way Of All Flesh is mixed in with the ambient and accessible nature of Magma, losing none of the pulverising melody along the way. Born for One Thing opens the album, reminding everyone Gojira are one of the heaviest bands on planet Earth.
Hold On displays the expanse of their experimentation. Daring to open with a prolonged intro that would fit squarely on a Ghost album – slowly building for 2 minutes before exploding to life. New Found, at the centre of the album is the (not so) hidden gem. At almost 7 minutes, the showpiece is the 2 minute riff filled outro. Sphinx and album closer Grind are straight up old school Gojira, and they’re glorious.
From Mars to Sirius
The album that got me, and countless others into Gojira. Their third album is the one that shot them to international stardom and they haven’t faltered since. Containing a number of Gojira‘s greatest songs. The Heaviest Matter of the Universe earns its rightful place as the heaviest song in the universe. Flying Whales compelled the masses to purchase giant inflatable sea life.
From Mars to Sirius is not just about the heavy though. For instance the melodic track From Mars perfectly builds anticipation that makes following track To Sirius even more crushing. Closing track Global Warming has a glorious prolonged tapped outro that rounds out the album expertly.
L’Enfant Sauvage
It kills me not to put From Mars to Sirius first. It is my favourite Gojira album, it shot them to stardom and is a staple album on any metal fans favourites shortlist. But fifth release L’enfant Sauvage took everything Gojira have relased so far, and just put together an absolutely perfect release. The 1-2-3-4 punch of Explosia, L’enfant sauvage, The Axe and Liquid Fire is as good as you will find on any album. Explosia waits 10 seconds before it hits you straight in the face with pummelling rhythm and trademark pick scrapes.
The Wild Healer then allows us to catch our breath (and get ear drum reconstructive surgery) before the savagery starts again. There are plenty of albums that combine melody and heaviness. However, I don’t think I can name another album where the extreme ends of both are combined so effectively. The album might be called the wild child, but the surgical precision of the composition is Jedi level stuff. A masterpiece.
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