Gojira - From Mars to Sirius

An Autothrall Classic. For their third act, the French mod metal squad Gojira aspired to make a mountain out of a molehill. From Mars to Sirius goes beyond aspiration to accomplishment

An Autothrall Classic. Originally published here.


For their third act, the French mod metal squad Gojira aspired to make a mountain out of a molehill. From Mars to Sirius goes beyond aspiration to accomplishment, quashing their previous efforts like a landslide, so hard that rubble continues to pour onto The Link's face long past the original, explosive tremors. This is a dense and effective offering which transformed a band that was a mere curiosity into a massive, touring force and one that many journalists and hipsters acclaim to be 'the future of metal'. We've heard this expression before and it almost always peters out in the end, but one cannot deny the increasing success experienced by this band.

Gojira 2013. Photo by Metal Chris

And it's just impossible to deny. By the end of the first track, "Ocean Planet", the band has already crushed all of their prior songwriting. Bold, accessible and yet dusted in flecks of industrial rust and grime, the track functions off an alternating discordant groove akin to something Voivod might have crafted on their Negatron album (in particular the breakdown at 2:00), but blocky, mechanical and uniquely graceful. It's like a chunk of factory gaining sentience and operating itself, yet adorned in the bands pseudo-universal 'life peace love Earth' sentimentality. "Backbone" constructs an appropriate chug which reminded me of the rhythm to Primus' "Toys Go Winding Down", albeit glazed in industrial rock and Joe Duplantier's carnal multi-faceted throating. The song experiences a beautiful shift towards sombering melodic death metal at its own 2:00 mark, immediately an album favorite. "From the Sky" continues this trend with a barrage of fundamental grooving death metal and chugging fortitude, both barrels rolling forward towards a beautiful climax. "Unicorn" is another of the band's frequent interludes, this one's shining harmonics and tranquil beat winning out over the namesake.

Gojira 2013. Photo by Metal Chris

This flight into deceptive fantasy continues with "Where Dragons Dwell", a winding passage of bass floes and chugging excess at the end of its cavernous melodies. The ambient break is very cool, transforming into another huge bottom end riff, which leads the track through its final pacing before "The Heaviest Matter of the Universe" explodes like a galactic genesis, which a flattening groove which will have you either twitching and banging your head like a goddamn automaton or throwing your hat in about how horrible this band must be for its ability to create such a convincing, simplistic slaughter. "Flying Whales" features whale song samples and melancholic clean guitars that slowly propel into another stompfest, and you can almost close your eyes to imagine the travails of such a figurative beast as it navigates the phlogiston between worlds and realities. "In the Wilderness" follows with more desolate crunching barbarity, as if the 'wilderness' of the title were in fact a post-apocalyptic scene, retired metal hulls stretching the horizon as we celebrate the waste of our passing.

Trees so strong, that they never can fall
Four suns alight, in silver grey sky
Wild river flows, with rage alive
Lions of fire approach me

Such stark and baleful imagery translates entirely too well into the plodding, slugging murder fest of the bands rhythmic guts, ever rising forth from the primordial elixir with a strong melodic surge that balances them back to the more accessible, impatient ear. From here, the crawling cosmic blues of "World to Come", and the brief, distant, half-titled prog piece "From Mars", which feels like a bit of Floyd-ian paving across the band's crushing path, offering a respite before the melee that is "To Sirius", a sequence of colossal grooves against the black border of interspace. "Global Warming" returns the band to its love for the guitar tapped rhythm, a slight sliver of foreshadowing towards the album that would follow this. The track is lovely, even as it digresses into another of the bands lumbering juggernaut riffs, and a gentle end.

Gojira 2013. Photo by Metal Chris

From Mars to Sirius is one of those albums with the transient ability to 'grow'. As easily accessed as it was upon release, I have found the years nothing but kind to its wiles, and I rank this now far higher than I ever would have in 2005. A beautiful, winged thing has emerged from its larval stage within the creative cortex of these four Frenchmen, and we are all the richer for its presence, trailing stardust and inspiration upon the potential found in the cauled corners of our beloved medium. Like the massive waves swelling across Tokyo Bay, Gojira has finally arrived.

Andy's Best of the Rest

Written by Andy Osborn.

So much metal, so little time. Busy as we are here at Metal Bandcamp trying to dissect and divulge the best heavy releases available on our favorite service, we don’t always get around to digging in to everything we would like to cover. Hidden gems are uncovered on an almost daily basis so sometimes they just get lost in the chaotic whirlwind that is the collective mind of part-time bloggers. So looking back at the last 12 months, I’ve exhumed some of my favorite albums that for one reason or another never got a proper review. All of the following releases could be drooled over and written about at length, but for sake of brevity - and my sanity - here’s the best of the rest.

5. Speedtrap - Powerdose

Traditional speed metal came back in a big way in 2013. One of the groups leading the charge is Finland’s Speedtrap, whose full-length debut floated criminally under the radar upon its release in August. Riffs rip and twist their way across what may be a fairly standard template, but the beefy production and blistering finger-wizardry make Powerdose a perfect argument for revivalists.

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4. Immortal Bird - Akrasia

Artwork by Kikyz1313

I was enthralled by Thrawsunblat’s effort early this year, so another 2013 release featuring Rae Amitay was a devilishly surprising holiday gift. Not sticking to a single genre, Immortal Bird sounds like they have the fires of hell driving their passion for all things extreme. The complex, ever-bending songs coupled with Rae’s vocals remind of a death metal Ludicra, a comparison I save only for the most worthy of projects.

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3. Fir Bolg - Towards Ancestral Lands

Cover painting by Stephanie Simona

I listened to this album solely hoping to finish the laugh that the cover art started, but what this French solo project lacks in art direction it makes up for in energy and focus. It’s essentially a thought experiment in what Immortal would sound like if infused with folk influences, but holy hell does it ever work well. Fans of blackened riffage look no further.

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2. Noumena - Death Walks With Me

2013 was an incredible year for melodeath and saw top-notch releases from genre stalwarts Kalmah, Arsis, Dark Tranquillity and Hypocrisy. But the one that surprised me the most is this fourth full-length from little-known Finnish troupe Noumena. They fuse deeper than hell male vocals with poppy female harmonies and uplifting melodies that bring a fresh sound to the usually melancholic style. You’ll be humming along to these choruses for months to come.

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1. Satan - Life Sentence

Cover art by Eliran Kantor

These middle-aged NWOBH-ers burst back onto the scene two decades later with hands down the best trad metal album of the year. Life Sentence is a nonstop rager filled with infectious riffs, dueling lead guitars and good old fashioned metallic fun. The tight as leather songwriting is absolutely flawless as the Brits tell tales of war and strife, and even manage what may be the first appropriate 9/11 remembrance in metaldom. With better consistency and re-playability than any other album released this year, Satan have re-opened and re-written the book of British metal with this masterpiece.

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Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance

Cover art by Worthless

It is always exciting when I browse a new label Bandcamp for the first time. My aim is to discern which albums are good, the end goal to decide which one I will ultimately be writing about. I carefully listen to tracks (sometimes whole albums) from many of them, before I make a hopefully well informed decision.

Not so much on the Listenable Records Bandcamp. My entire decision making process was "THE NEW INCANTATION?? HELL YEAH!!"

Perhaps it's the Dan Swanö production, perhaps it's a fuck you to the legion of bands usurping the Incatation legacy, but on Vanquish in Vengeance the band sounds fresh and energetic; quite a feat considering their long career (nine full-lengths since 1992's Onward to Golgotha). The basic Incantation blueprint is still there - as Doug Moore/IO writes: "Stiff-limbed blasting exists to set up stinky doom slowdowns. It’s a common ploy now, and it offers no surprises. Incantation is simply better at using it than virtually anyone else".

There are little tweaks here and there, for example feedback and pinch harmonics are put to great use in "Transcend into Absolute Dissolution"; but mostly it's "just" a collection of muscular riffs bolted onto a rock solid set of songs. The biggest change is in the sound. Very gritty and raw (love the guitar sound!) but without the murkiness usually associated with the infamous Incantation sound. You still got the heaviness and the oppressive atmosphere; the clarity of the mix somehow makes it even more crushing.

My favorite songs are the aforementioned Transcend into Absolute Dissolution, the ritualistic Profound Loathing with the interesting drum patterns and atmospheric soloing, and of course the brutally slow funeral doom of Legion of Dis. But really, there is not a bad moment to be found, Vanquish in Vengeance is simply a great death metal album.

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