GOJIRA
Gojira take their place in metal’s upper echelons
PRESS/GABRIELLE DUPLANTIER
Fortitude
ROADRUNNER
Bayonne’s eco-metal missionaries click into a higher gear
GOJIRA DON’T PLAY death metal anymore. That’s not an insult, it’s a fact. They’ve always had lofty ambitions for four regular, eco-friendly blokes from the French countryside, and each record since 2001’s initial burst, Terra Incognita, has hinted at something more. That evolution became impossible to ignore on 2012’s L’Enfant Sauvage – it armed them with newfound rounds of melodic musical ammunition, pebble-dashing their influence on everyone from Architects to Conjurer. Magma arrived four years later, pushing the Sea Shepherd dinghy further. Singles like Stranded stomped with full-on, Black Album Metallica bullishness; this rubbed against much of the record’s melancholy vastness, rooted in personal tragedy borne by lead songwriters and brothers, Joe and Mario Duplantier.