When French extreme experimental band, Gojira, released their 2006 album From Mars to Sirius, open-minded listeners marveled at their ability to blend scorching, technical death metal, trudging doom and atmospheric prog-rock. Clearly, the band's willingness to explore is their raison detre , but even Gojira's most devoted followers will likely be rendered speechless by the band's upcoming album, The Way of all Flesh, which comes out October 14.
Throughout the disc, the band vault from one end of the metal spectrum to the next, ping-ponging from Meshuggah to Opeth, Morbid Angel to Voivod, enveloping the disc with a conceptual web redolent of Mastodon, but rooted in reality, not fantasy. Gojira have touched upon environmentalism before on songs like "Global Warming," but here the tunes are imbibed with a sense of dread, as if they're no longer issuing a call to action, and instead have started ringing the death knell.
"This album is a requiem for our planet," says frontman Joe Duplantier. "We don't want to be negative or cynical about the fate of humanity, but the situation on earth is growing critical, and the way humans behave is so catastrophic that we really need to express our exasperation about it."
Guesting on "Adoration For None" is Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe, who provides a cry of desperation that compliments the record's vibe of fatalism and finality. "The whole album is about death," Duplantier says. "Death is like a step on the path of the soul. The mystery surrounding this phenomenon is just so inspiring, and death is the most common thing on earth."
Ultimately, however, the band remains hopeful that mankind won't pull the apocalyptic toilet plunger and flush itself into the sea, which keeps tracks like the acoustic-based "The Silver Cord" and the tribal, near-industrial track "The Art of Dying," ringing with a crushing sense of spirituality. "We still believe that consciousness can make a difference an that we can change things as human beings," Duplantier says.
Even if mankind is doomed, there's be plenty of good tuneage to listen to on the way down.
And check out our roundtable discussion with members of Gojira, Behemoth and Job For a Cowboy.
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