Year Of Metal #016: Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh
In a major tonal switch from the last outing, here we have a sprawling, highly modern, totally sincere entry into the surprisingly populous French metal scene. Gojira’s fourth record broke pretty big relatively speaking in 2008, and their tight grooves, ecological themes, and runtime that blasts past the hour mark make The Way Of All Flesh a serious proposition.
I like the album on the whole but do find it a little exhausting. It starts off with fantastic energy on “Oroborus”, with a great wriggling riff and terrific vocals from Joe Duplantier, who’s a really impressive frontman. He has a proper bark of a metal voice, snapping into his lyrics with total conviction (he’s an environmental and social campaigner of some note, and it comes across in his performance). It’s a smart statement to open the album - heavy, but with plenty of melody to get into, and nicely balanced production. Everything thumps but nothing’s lost.
This isn’t always the case. On “Toxic Garbage Island”, appropriately enough, everything sounds a little messy and squished together. The mix on the drums, in particular, sounds off to my ear, and the end result is all a little peaky and muddy. The same can be said for “All The Tears”; when Gojira really fire up, it’s as though the soundboards are overloaded and the end result’s a bit unpleasant (in an actually unpleasant way rather than a metal way).
Luckily, they expand their reach far beyond those big chunky sounds more often than not. “A Sigh To Behold” is built around a goofy but hugely satisfying synth pattern; when the guitars take over, they switch up the groove into something halfway funky. It’s a great base for the snapping, affected vocals and occasional explosion of bass drum.
They’re also capable of controlled aggression that sounds fantastic. “The Art Of Dying”, an epic stretching to nearly 10 minutes, is almost industrial in its melodic sparseness. The track builds from the gloom, firstly with frenetic percussion reminiscent of scuttering rodents, then introducing grinding, downtuned guitars hammering away at one note for minutes at a time. When the track finally shifts, it’s to introduce slashes of shrill chords and the most operatic vocals The Way of All Flesh has to offer. The album’s not always downright fun because it does aim for a higher value, but this track’s a blast.
If it can be a bit of a tiring listen (for the occasionally less than effective stylistic choices and sheer length rather than the social efforts of the songwriters), it’s a laudably ambitious record. It achieves what it sets out to do for sure, even if it goes on a bit in the process.
