Thursday, 22 January 2015

Gojira - From Mars To Sirius (Listenable Records, 2005)


Gojira - From Mars to Sirius

"From Mars to Sirius" is one of those albums that manage to keep the listener in a constant state of anticipation and wonder. It is essentially musicianship in one of its most innovative forms where Gojira manage to juggle a wide range of influences all converging in a fine slab of extreme metal. It’s hard to tag their sound out of this whirlwind of sweeping guitars and smiting rhythms though one can’t help but notice the death metal inspired musical textures (incidentally death metal seems to have had its say in the vast majority of extreme – and not only -- metal albums of the past five years) whilst the breath of the dissonant insanity of Meshuggah seems to permeate intrusively many a time. Their songs move on a multiplicity of musical temperaments, soothing yet not mellow at times and then swerving to swirling sound tunnels of relentless complexity, from spasmodic drum break downs which exuberate into faster tempos paved on abrupt chord changes to intermitting crushing passages of heavy guitar riffing. Being a convoluted album as a whole on many levels Gojira show that they’re not walking on eggshells here; knowing every turn and corner of this labyrinthine creation. Although not technically mind-boggling, the album is perhaps hard to digest by the more fastidious listeners among us but still it may well be one of the most interesting releases of this year. 

(originally written for Tartarean Desire - autumn 2005)
"From Mars to Sirius" is one of those albums that manage to keep the listener in a constant state of anticipation and wonder. It is essentially musicianship in one of its most innovative forms where Gojira manage to juggle a wide range of influences all converging in a fine slab of extreme metal. It’s hard to tag their sound out of this whirlwind of sweeping guitars and smiting rhythms though one can’t help but notice the death metal inspired musical textures (incidentally death metal seems to have had its say in the vast majority of extreme – and not only -- metal albums of the past five years) whilst the breath of the dissonant insanity of Meshuggah seems to permeate intrusively many a time. Their songs move on a multiplicity of musical temperaments, soothing yet not mellow at times and then swerving to swirling sound tunnels of relentless complexity, from spasmodic drum break downs which exuberate into faster tempos paved on abrupt chord changes to intermitting crushing passages of heavy guitar riffing. Being a convoluted album as a whole on many levels Gojira show that they’re not walking on eggshells here; knowing every turn and corner of this labyrinthine creation. Although not technically mind-boggling, the album is perhaps hard to digest by the more fastidious listeners among us but still it may well be one of the most interesting releases of this year. - See more at: http://www.tartareandesire.com/reviews/Gojira/From_Mars_To_Sirius/2901/#sthash.eKOiHm40.dpuf

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