THE WAY OF ALL FLESH

GOJIRA plays aggressive, very original metal. While it's difficult to assign a label to the music the band creates, I'm quite comfortable calling it a blend of death metal with some technical elements and some minor metalcore influence. The songs are mostly completely riff-driven, which is probably one of GOJIRA's strongest points: they really are a riff machine, creating original rhythmic attacks for almost every one of their songs, which differentiates the band from other tech/extreme acts: their songs never sound the same, it's easy to tell one song from the other thanks to the brilliance of the riffs and the somewhat surprising presence of melody in the tracks.

Yes, GOJIRA leaves some room for melody in their music. Not really mellow, subtle melody, but phrases of enough tuneful significance that make every one of their songs memorable enough in the mind of the listener. The vocals, while not perfect (and my minor gripe with the band), are very effective, and manage to convey feeling and emotions, something usually difficult for death metal voices.

GOJIRA makes songs, they take time to make coherent propositions using aggressive means. The riff, the dna this music is made of, is not piled one upon the other but it is given time to grow, to be effective, to endure. While at times it reminds us of Sweden-style Gothenburg melodic death metal, at times it takes us to the most extreme examples of today's metal bands. Some riffs even sound positively dark and fantastic in their eclecticness, like the one that informs "Esoteric Surgery", a song that tastes like black metal, has a riff of pure black metal inspiration, but feels like a mix between death metal and something from even further down the earth. One of the highlights in the album, as well as "Wolf down the earth".

The album is not perfect and at moments, especially around the middle, tends to lose a little bit of interest, only to regain it again near the end. A great record by a talented band that has surprised me and probably will amaze any metal fan with an open mind.

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