Gojira - Academy 2, Manchester - 7th November 2012 (Live Review)
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Tuesday, 13 November 2012 |
Written by Ben Bland
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With the evenings drawing ever further in and the air getting ever colder, it makes perfect sense that Gojira have returned to our shores for another little jaunt. The Bayonne band are masters of technical metal efficiency, and few acts could be as competent at dispelling the ever depressing onset of the British winter. There are also few bands with as much buzz about them in the metal world today, as demonstrated by the fact that the venues they are playing are rapidly increasing in size, to the point that Academy 2 is already busy by the time the support acts arrive.
 With increased popularity comes an increasingly diehard fanbase. As a result, supporting Gojira is not an easy task, but Trepalium still manage to make it seem more difficult than they should. Gojira’s frontman Joe Duplantier claims not to listen to much heavy music, and maybe that is reflected in the fact that the fellow Frenchmen they have brought along for this UK tour lumber awkwardly from solid riff to solid riff, as if unsure how to join the dots in the way that the headliners do so adeptly. Whether the same is true of openers Klone we cannot know, thanks to the ever pleasing incompetence of National Rail. It is doubtful, though that they could exude anything like the powerful of tonight’s main attraction.
As more a demonstration of brute force than a performance in the purest sense, Gojira are nothing if not powerful tonight. From the opening gambit of 'Explosia' onwards, Academy 2 is subjected to an unrelenting display of ruthlessly heavy metal for a little over an hour. Necks threaten to break and minds come dangerously close to melting as the French titans prove why they are widely acknowledged as one of the most thrilling bands in the metal sphere at the present moment.
What is perhaps most impressive about the quartet tonight is how enjoyable they remain despite giving little let-up in the heaviness department all the way through their time on stage. Gojira don’t really do songs that are anything other than supremely heavy, and thus, with the exception of a drum solo from Mario Duplantier, they spend the whole gig journeying through sonic plains so ferocious that it seems a wonder that the roof has failed to cave in by the conclusion of the gig. Whilst crowd reactions may be most feral for classics like 'The Heaviest Matter of the Universe' and 'Oroborus', it is perhaps their new material that shines brightest tonight. 'L’Enfant Sauvage' demonstrates the development in their songwriting to the point of being almost unnoticeably heavy, as immediate as it is crushing. The fact that they close on 'The Gift of Guilt', meanwhile, emphasises their confidence in their recent effort.
Whether it will bring them to an even bigger audience remains to be seen. The fact that they have reached venues the size of this one and London’s Koko should not be sniffed at. Gojira are an extreme metal band after all, but one that is still more accessible and undeniably brilliant than less extreme acts such as the inconsistent Lamb of God or the severely overrated Machine Head. On the basis of this show, Gojira easily have the stage presence and material to become as staggeringly huge as their thunderous riffs imply they should be. One senses that, if they have their way, they will let absolutely nothing stop them.
'L’Enfant Sauvage' is out now via Roadrunner.
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