Genre : Groove Metal, meshuggah Metal
Label : Roadrunner Records
Origin : France
Rating : 7.0 / 10
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Gojira's L'Enfant Sauvage is a solid musical accomplishment that does not exactly seek to reinvent the Tools - pun just might be intended - it relies on, but it does a more than decent job contributing similar patterns you have been witnessing throughout the recent days of modern - meshuggah - metal. The most notable leanings the disc conforms into are aggressive groove warfare, - think along the lines of Lamb Of God, minus the Southern fixation - gloomy black (!) metal that gets presented with the occasional quasi-angst of the alternative side of the parent genre, while the high definition Meshuggah influence is something you will have the chance to witness at work throughout the release, courtesy of the compositional methods the package is exhibiting. Like in the opening track, read more about that later. For now, read on if you want to know the most favored ways and charms of this decent runner-up from French.
To deviate from consensually propagated stock-sanity, the review will offer an opinion on the opening track in the latter portion of the text. Second, titular track "L'Enfant Sauvage" is a solid variant on meshuggah metal that enriches the genre with a nice new central pattern, and creates an organic connection between the aforementioned genre and the particularly aggressive side of groove metal that dominates the middle section of the build.
I'm not happy to announce that the next entry, called "The Axe" is pretty uninspired, in my opinion. It sounds like a drunken power metal ballad that drank enough to hit on black metal, and black metal gives the finger under the table when her legs are scrutinized "covertly". Truly terrible chorus that sounds to court the institution of relentless beer-intake. Also, I'm forced to ponder what is up with the iron cutter riff, propagating its super-limited charms at the 3:00 minute mark as the main effin attraction? Seriously? This iron cutter riff gets abused throughout the song, and it is not so stellar that its overusage would be justified - an example of a bad riff selection, in my opinion, and not the only one on the spin, either.
Also notice this : banging on the upper frets to mime mid frequency detail in the riffs is a method the release is fond at relying on, and it is pretty stunning to witness that the next song, "Liquid Fire", starts out with such an "upper-fret-banging" motive, right after it left a riff of similarly limited beneficial qualities behind via the ending of the previous song. Other than that, this next entry, "Liquid Fire" is kind of a goth build with elements of groove metal in the verse. I like the "brave" backing vocals in this song, which, in character, sound to flatter pop, but not in a way that would conflict with the shape of rough sonic things on display. While the central hook does a nice job conveying the aforementioned black register, courting alternative metal leanings in the climax of the song is an act that serves the anatomy of the package well. 2:33 reeks Faith No More. After this section, the groove metal comes back to run a BONUS! circle in the arena, failing to notice that it fails to do a fucking thing.
"The Wild Healer" is a short instrumental variant on harmless retirement home music. Oh my anguish G, the guitar riff sounds like something I would be expecting to hear from an arcade machine in which you shoot out colored balls with a duck to match other colored balls in front of the duck. Oh well.
The aforementioned implementation, of course, is a decoy, that wants to serve as the precursor of the next track, called "Planned Obsolescence", which is
so ultrahyperbr00tal
groove metal that it makes Lamb of God run to the T-Rex of Pantera shouting : "paaaaaaapiiiiii, paaaaaapi!!"
With elements of southern sludge smartly embedded into the mix, this track is enjoyable, but nothing that would make me twice as excited as it can actually make me to be. I mean : the Southern sludge of Crowbar eats this song for breakfast without even adjusting the posture of anything involved in the nourishment process, but, it is an OK song. But nothing serious. Kind of enervated closure for the track though, which once again is composed of a riff that cultivates delusions about its own capacity to entertain, being strectched towards infinity and beyond. Don't.
The track "Mouth of Kala" is a good representative of the overall picture the disc seeks to paint. A solid, tasteful, straightforward mid tempo groove is the heart and soul of the track, coming back to the front during the chorus to reveal an efficient affair between black metal and alternative metal, while the main methodology to deviate from these premiere pastimes are instrumental interludes that sound to have a difficult fucking time making a statement, but they are looking superb when they are getting destroyed by the rebounding central hook.
"The Gift of Guilt" starts out with a surprisingly uninspired riff that sounds to be the background music of a bad beat 'em up arcade game from 1995, then it evolves into traditional groove metal, that which though is aggressive enough to court death metal. The hook is equivalent with the recycling procedure of the terrible opening riff, supported by vocals, and, strangely enough, the conditioning of the listener works, as the motive is more tolerable for the second time. The song features a particularly strong middle section in which it deviates via dwelling in chaos - then the arcade riff comes back to support the frankly, z-side hook once again. I'm not happy with the fact that from 3:14 to 5:56 - OMFG! - I need to endure this hook to my core. You are a very mean person, Mr. Nietzsche. Let me recommend a metal release for you.
"Pain Is A Master" is the song the record would be looking better without, and here is why : the track does everything that the other entries to this point have been doing already, only it is - inane. What's with the harmonic guitar song traveling upward? Are you going Steve Vai on me????manyquestionmarks
Talking about guitar wizards, "Born In Winter" offers a tint of momentary respite with an arpeggiated riff that reeks the open fare fretboard hocuspocus of Soe Jatriani, - who was Avi's teacher, then he got pwned by the student - then the anatomy of the song explodes into an aggressive melodic hook to reveal, essentially, a Stone Sour song, minus Corey Taylor producing his 2342423423423rd studio nervous breakdown to your relating pleasure. Healthy alternative metal that you may catch on radio, then, you may catch the dude mid-air, who just got fired from the station for playing it.
Concluding track "The Fall" reminds me of Tool, though I did not yet hear the music of that band. But, I have been informed by a Noise Shaft reader that Ceterum's line of craft - a band that I have heard already - is very similar to Tool, and this song is very similar to that shape of data.
I have found the package an enjoyable one, yet not at all one that would sport the capacity to reinvent the image of heavy effin music from scratch. It is more of a conforming release. I feel that the autonomous riffs that the band chooses to wrap the songs up with, are not as super-heavyweight ones as the band members suggest them to be. The methodology itself is a tribute to the compositional behavior utilized fondly by Meshuggah on the ObZen LP : on numerous occasions, the Swedish greats wrap up the tracks by an autonomous, new riff that comes with the straightforward agenda to offer epic closure for a statement. Like in Electric Red, and its superb malfunctioning sentry guns riff, starting at the end - oops. - of the song. I can listen to that riff in loops for many many minutes without having enough of it, despite how Meshuggah offers it for 1 minute flat. They knew the riff destroys, and they knew as well that it will be listened to with commitment by a nerd sophisticated enough to pick up on its sublime charm. Gojira, on the other hand, is not embarrassed at all to prolong a relatively harmless quasi-southern meshuggah metal riff for more than 2 minutes in the opening track. Other than that, an enjoyable runner up record, and this is a Godzilla mindhack.
Rating : 7.0 / 10
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