Gojira - Magma
French metallers uphold and better their exceptionally consistent career
Few band’s careers can be marked so predominantly by individuality, but Gojira’s progressive metal style has taken them through five albums of increasingly original music that could solely crush the argument that the genre is becoming more-and-more stale. The French group’s sixth album, Magma, is no different. The technical death metal style that graced earlier albums has evolved once again here, and has taken on an invigorating and wholly mesmerising style that incorporates atmospherics, as well as melody and groove in a way Gojira haven’t previously explored.
Whilst previous album L'enfant Sauvage subtly added to the emotional nature of the four-piece’s music, Magma steps it up a notch and becomes not just a brutishly heavy affair, but one that encapsulates you in a heavy grey fog of dark foreboding. This is unsurprising, given that the album’s writing was tragically affected by the death of guitar/vocals and drum duo Joe and Mario Duplantier’s mother. The following grief has seeped into Magma heavily, and undoubtedly had a hand in both its lyrics (“when you get to the other side please send a sign” Joe Duplantier sings on ‘The Shooting Star’) and its poignant ambiance.
Magma holds a vast scope, giving Gojira room to expand their sound into a monolithic style that is simultaneously emotionally cumbersome and massively heavy. Clobbering riffs and dense drumming are a constant source of metallic wonder on Magma, such as on the intense heaviness of ‘Silvera’, or ‘Pray’, which ascends into huge percussion-led passages of relentlessly brutish heaviness. However, also present are captivating grooves and supernaturally eerie atmospherics that consistently build on the ever-present sense of dread. “Tell me what you see in the afterlife” Duplantier mournfully sings on the bleak ethereal feel of ‘Low Lands’, but a subtle meditative riff accompanies his soulful vocals to shine through a glimmer of hope like a ray of light piercing the constantly swirling fog that surrounds Magma.
Elsewhere, ‘The Cell’ sees Mario Duplantier hammering the double-bass pedals, whilst the accompanying guitar ruthlessly cuts through Magma’s encapsulating sonics to hit the listener directly with its raw power. Meanwhile, ‘Stranded’ holds haunting vocals and stunningly effective guitar work, whilst ‘Yellow Stone’ sees a doom metal style riff take over Magma for just over a minute, but despite its crunching impact it actually acts as a moment of respite to allow listeners to reflect on the emotional toll the album inflicts, before the monumental size of the title track takes hold.
An instant great, Magma is also an album that cuts deeper over time, as you allow its various layers to seep through and work together, to create a uniquely enthralling experience. Fans of the more straight-forwardly abrasive earlier material Gojira produced will still find remorselessly harsh riffs to devour here, but they’re blended with a dynamic new style that is deep, thoughtful and remarkably compelling. An album shrouded in a murky haze that holds an unearthly feel, it is a soul-searching album that is grand in nature and mind-blowing in execution.
10/10
