History
The French band was formed as a death metal unit and called Godzilla. The name and sound soon changed. The demos Victim, Possessed and Saturate followed respectively in 1996, 1997 and 1998. In 1999 the band released its own album called Wisdom Comes. Not deviating far name-wise, the band chose the Gojira name for itself and released and independent CD called Terra Incognita in 2001.
Possessed was remastered for a 2001 release. A CD called The Link was issued through Next/Beyond Music in April of 2003. The band issued a CD and a DVD called The Link Alive in 2004, which two years later was reissued by Listenable. From Mars To Sirius charted in France. The Frenchmen hit USA on tour with Lamb Of God in 2007. Behemoth, Gojira and Beneath The Massacre announced a tour of the USA and Canada under the 2007 Radio Rebellion Tour monicker at the end of that year.
Reviews
GOJIRA - THE LINK - NEXT
The Link is one of those uncommon albums which introduces something to the masses. Not that the band and album are all-original. In fact, influences from bands like Morbid Angel, Strapping Young Lad, Meshuggah, Treponem Pal, Coroner and Opeth can be detected all over the place. What Gojira does is synthesize the inspirations into multitudes of sounds which it then proceeds to make its own. Consequently, the album's songs can be slow, fast, blasting or cruising. What the songs do share is an independent sound - courtesy of the Frenchmen's own studio - and a very tight delivery. In fact, should the band be able to deliver anything approaching the maelstrom on the CD in the live arena, the fans will have come face-to-face with superbly proficient musicians. Having sung the band's praises, it is fair to say that the songs can get repetitious. A song like Inward movement is too monotonous to be described with much admiration. Regardless, fans of the aforementioned acts should link with this act. - Ali "The Metallian"
GOJIRA – THE LINK – LISTENABLE 
For some reason this CD has again arrived at Metallian Towers, perhaps Listenable have decided to include this along with the band’s newer DVD in case everyone has forgotten the band because no (release or re-release) date or year is to be found on the CD itself. Musically the opener and title track is an uninspired mix of Meshuggah, Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad. Death Of Me throws in some of the same influences and Joseph Duplantier’s James Hetfield like grunting doesn’t help alleviate the dreariness. Remembrance follows the Connected intermission and is at least varied and more alive. Torii is another instrumental break. Indians is often slow. Embrace The World is a welcome increase in tempo. Inward Movement starts off in the doom vein and the quartet show off their heavy side before diving into moments of high speed drumming and death metal. Over The Flows is so experimental and technical that at times Gojira seem to abandon heavy metal altogether in favour of some random, disconnected jamming. Wisdom Comes increases the tempo yet again as the listener is confronted with rapid drumming accompanied with proficient structured riffing and solos, its as if the band woke up from a slumber. Dawn is an eight minute long instrumental closer and is dominated by melancholic sounds ala numerous Finnish bands. – Anna Tergel
GOJIRA – THE LINK ALIVE (2003) (DVD) – LISTENABLE
This DVD accompanied Listenable’s presumed re-release of The Link CD by the French quartet Gojira It is recorded in 2003 and only contains older material. Fifteen songs from the band pretty much cover most of The Link and the Terra Incognita albums. The songs are performed at a packed Bordeaux venue. The quality of the recording is above average and showcases the band’s abilities well in this live setting. Extras include an interesting video clip for the song Love from the Terra Incognita album and some old concert footage from the band’s very early days. – Anna Tergel
Interviews
|
