Gojira: Explosia – new video & L'Enfant Sauvage – full album stream

 

 

GOJIRA, still loved by all, are returning some of that love: they have relinquished a new explosive performance clip, and their fifth album, ‘L'Enfant Sauvage’, can be still streamed in full just about everywhere. Listen to ‘L'Enfant Sauvage (“the wild child”) here at No Clean Singing, here at Punk News, or here at EspyRock. Then, enchanted, listen to the man himself, Joe Duplantier, talking passionately about GOJIRA's latest album here (YouTube). ‘L'Enfant Sauvage’, issued through Roadrunner Records in June 2012 and produced by Joe Duplantier and Josh Wilbur, had charted well; it peaked at position number 7 on France's SNEP and at number 34 on Billboard's Top 200, a feat it equaled on Canadian Albums Chart. ‘L'Enfant Sauvage’ special edition CD and vinyl LP can be bought through here (GOJIRA store), while the standard CD is available here (Roadrunner store):

“… French metal quartet GOJIRA's fifth studio album, ‘L'Enfant Sauvage’, is as ferocious, frenetic, and fearless as anything their obvious influences have put their names to. … An utterly exhausting but consistently thrilling listen, ‘L'Enfant Sauvage’ is arguably a career best which suggests GOJIRA have found their spiritual home,” [offered Jon O'Brien, AllMusic – more here:]

GOJIRA: L'Enfant Sauvage (Featured Tracks) – courtesy of Roadrunner USA

 

Environment-friendly GOJIRA “have risen from utmost obscurity during the first half of their career to widespread global recognition in the second” argues Eduardo Rivadavia for AllMusic (more here). Brothers guitarist and vocalist Joe Duplantier and drummer Mario Duplantier, along with guitarist Christian Andreu and bassist Jean-Michel Labadie, formed GOJIRA in 1996 in a village close to Bayonne, France. They recorded their first mix of progressive, death, groove and thrash metal under the name “Godzilla” and as such they released demos ‘Victim’ (1996), ‘Possessed’ (1997) and ‘Saturate’ (1999). As GOJIRA they issued 2000's demo ‘Wisdom Comes’ which was wisely followed by the band's debut studio album, ‘Terra Incognita’, in 2001. Praised by AllMusic's Phil Freeman (here) and described as “schizophrenic combination of extreme metal styles” by Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic, ‘Terra Incognita’s successor came in 2003 in form of ‘The Link’ that “helpfully revealed that this was simply how GOJIRA “rolled”, man,” as put by aforementioned Mr. Rivadavia (more here). Next came 2005's ‘From Mars To Sirius’, issued through Listenable Records and Prosthetic Records:

“GOJIRA's third album was the one that really stamped the French quartet's all-pro credentials, gaining them access into the exclusive top echelon of the world's progressive metal elite. Meticulously conceived from the inside out, the record radiated a newfound confidence to match both the unprecedented diversity of its musical palette, and the evocative cover art (featuring a whale adrift amongst mystery planets) representative of its often otherworldly qualities,” [again, Eduardo Rivadavia – more here]

Again adorned with artwork created by Joe Duplantier, GOJIRA's fourth album, 2008's ‘The Way Of All Flesh’, broke onto American album's chart Billboard Top 200 at number 138. Recorded at their home studio, produced by multitalented Joe Duplantier, mixed and mastered by Logan Mader and featuring guest appearance by LAMB OF GOD's Randy Blythe, ‘The Way Of All Flesh’ of course busied itself with life and death, theme-wise, and was described by Mr. Rivadavia, AllMusic, as “another fascinating chapter in GOJIRA's ever more impressive catalog” (more here). ‘The Way Of All Flesh’ was issued on Listenable/Prosthetic Records.