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A French heavy metal band with the Japanese name for Godzilla, Gojira, were never going to come quietly and with their highly anticipated album L’Enfant Sauvage they have certainly made quite the return.
This record marks the band’s fifth studio album, the name L’Enfant Sauvage translated as The Wild Child in French, is certainly apt for some of the tracks, but others delve a little deeper and are straight out of hell.
Fans will certainly be chomping at the bit for the outfit’s newest album after having to wait just over four years for its release.
Gojira aren’t just about head banging, and have always used their music to spread socio-conscious messages about the environment and other strong held beliefs, and this album’s content is just as substantial.
The record is an example of how unpredictable and diverse metal is, there are the obligatory swollen guitar solos and insatiable drum rolls, but mixed in are synthesizer sounds that create the core of the song The Wild Healer.
The track acts as an interlude, a soft come-down before the storm breaks, when you dive head first back into the mosh pit.
The record opens with the tasty seven-minute track Explosia, with no-holds-barred and screaming straight in your face before winding down and effortlessly sweeping you into their political and ecological concerns.
Tracks that stand out are Liquid Fire which bursts through the speakers engulfing you with digital chants before growling menacingly once again.
The title track L’Enfant Sauvage, wraps you up in a thunder of chaotic drums and murmuring bass-lines.
The lyrics are delivered with a disturbing edge of paranoia and echo a cry for help and firmly cement this as a solid title track.
The band manage to take a breath and access a lower register singing in the mellow Born in Winter before softly softly regaining their thrash metal style at the end.
From start to finish they keep the dial turned up to 11 and the change of tempo throughout the album ensures that listeners don’t skip to the next track.
Their style on the album is forumlaic, but this doesn’t mean it’s boring. Although the band could fit comfortably into a number of genres their frenetic style guitar, rolling drum beats and distinctive vocals act as their name badge and you know exactly who they are.