By: Phil Weller
Alum Type: Full Length
Date Released: 17/06/2016
Label: Roadrunner
Records
‘Magma’ is a record that envelopes you with its overtly dark
drama, but within its haze, its crushing catharcism makes it one of the most
special metal records to be released in some time. It may not be the relentless assault many
fans wanted from the album – and that’s not to say it is barren of those
moments – yet, as a vehicle for emotional cleansing, as a eulogy and an
obituary for a woman who shaped the personalities that drive this act, it is
staggering.
“Magma” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). The Shooting Star
2). Silvera
3). The Cell
4). Stranded
5). Yellow Stone
6). Magma
7). Pray
8). Only Pain
9). Low Lands
10). Liberation
2). Silvera
3). The Cell
4). Stranded
5). Yellow Stone
6). Magma
7). Pray
8). Only Pain
9). Low Lands
10). Liberation
The Review:
Wounded by their mother’s death, the Duplantier
brothers have crafted in ‘Magma’ an
album that is not only a natural progression of their technical and avant garde
craftsmanship, but one that is haunted by dark emotions of loss and turmoil, it
is an album choking in its emotional heaviness, haunted by the ghost of a
maternal figure.
Surrounded in a thick, foreboding smog, the
distinct lack of colour on the album’s greyscale cover bleeds into the solemn
tracks presented here. Whether Joe Duplantier is asking his mother “when
you get to the other side please send a sign” on sluggish eruptions of
‘The Shooting Star’ or to “tell
me what you see in the afterlife,” on the brooding “Low Lands”, it’s clear that this
episode of his life has left its scars. Here he vents and find catharsis within
his music and lyricisms. For, while the musical highlights are plentiful – and
diehard fans will be pleased to hear just how heavy it gets despite the sonic
evolution that predecessor “L'Enfant
Sauvage” hinted at – the true heaviness and magic comes from the blackened
mournfulness that sears through the album. At points meditative, at others
painfully vulnerable, ‘Magma’ is
emotionally draining and crushing, which only adds further potency to their
intrinsic and signature supernova musicality.
‘Silvera’,
a song hinged on an off kilter, thumping riff – thrown off course by its
discombobulating loop – is absolutely massive. With only two choruses,
characterised by the kind of tapped legato guitar lick that we’ve come to
expect from the French connoisseurs, they snake their way through the song with
an explorative adventurism, throwing riff after riff at you in a barrage of
out-and-out heaviness. ‘The Cell’
opens up with gunfire footwork from drummer Mario Duplantier’s ever exceptional
double bass, a sharp, syncopated snare puncturing the mix before a riff that
sounds like a castle collapsing in the dead of night takes over. Joel’s screams
of “Get
me out of here, I’ve been lost in the dark,” in it’s simplistic but
driving chorus meanwhile shows a growing musical accessibility within their song
writing framework. Akin to what Metallica did with ‘The Black Album’, the band are beginning to find more and more
inventive ways of injecting anthemic and irresistible choruses into what they
do without ever compromising their primal aggression. And this is no better
exemplified on the one riff, classic in situ ‘Stranded’. Much of their technicality is here stripped away but the
result is stunningly effective, it is a song with a staying power that, long after
listening, still lingers in your head and heart.
Elsewhere, the title track is founded upon an
obscure harmonic guitar melody that conjures a beguiling sense of unease. But
they intersperse the weirdness with a refrain that is uplifting, meditative and
spiritual. Only Gojira
could have created this and, when it’s swinging, groove infested crescendo
comes to the foray, preceded by some gorgeous bass melodies that hide in the
mix, it becomes utterly convincing.
‘Low Lands’
however, takes from the blueprint of one of their most revered songs, ‘Flying Whales’. From the instant
Mario’s shivering jazz infused beat begins the song is always building to a
conclusion of catastrophic and apocalyptic heaviness. Yet they teasingly leave
you waiting, each dynamic rise that quickens your heart and heightens your
senses only drops once more. Again and again it builds and falls like the
lapping of ocean waves. The seismic riff that does eventually greet you a tantalising
reward for your patience, a moment of tidal mercilessness that very few bands
in 2016 will be able to match.
One major difference to ‘Magma’ is not within the music itself, however. The band has hand
built, from the ground upwards, their own studios in New York
For Gojira, this surely wasn’t an easy album to
finish. They were in the early phases of creating the record when their
mother’s cancer diagnosis became a reality, derailing the process for long
periods of time. But they have come out of the other side stronger, more
emotionally in touch with their souls, spirits and minds than ever before. ‘Magma’ is a record that envelopes you
with its overtly dark drama, but within its haze, its crushing catharcism makes
it one of the most special metal records to be released in some time.
It may not be the relentless assault many fans
wanted from the album – and that’s not to say it is barren of those moments – yet,
as a vehicle for emotional cleansing, as a eulogy and an obituary for a woman
who shaped the personalities that drive this act, it is staggering.
“Magma”
will be available everywhere from 17/06/2016 and can be preorderd here
