Maciste all Infierno

Before I start I have to make a couple of things clear, the first thing is that I don't know if this album is a total live improvisation or if it was previously written. Secondly, I have listened to this work independently and also with the movie in the background (I don't think it goes without saying that it is much better this way, but in the review I will focus only on the music).

I consider important to know if it is an improvisation or not, because if it is I can say without problem that the musicians of Gojira have managed to impress me with their ability to interpret the late motivs from which it draws much of the total composition, the division of songs is much better in the film where each one refers to one or another scene, but that matters little in this review. The point I want to get to is that these Frenchmen have shown me more talent and skills in an ep almost entirely instrumental (even if they had the reinforcement of a movie to facilitate the writing of the songs) than in their insufferable debut album. All the members have some moments where they can show off, even the brief vocal interventions work adequately in the musical universe they create. And even the groovier moments become more dynamic and fit naturally with the sound they are trying to transmit. I don't know if it's that I'm getting used to this more "technical+groove" style but I find it much more accessible in this work, unlike the debut, I have no problem to listen to it again from time to time.

I don't really have big problems with this work, even so it simply gets repetitive, I would even dare to say that it's not very charismatic and not memorable at all, that's the big problem of it being a live improvisation, it lacks dynamism and creativity, once you have listened to "Maciste 1" you already know what kind of music you will find for the remaining 50 minutes. We could say that its properties at the same time can turn into shortcomings, because really this piece of music does not give much more to talk about it, especially if you do not know the history of Gojira as I do (the biggest fans of Gojira will also find curiosities in the album, apparently the songs "Maciste 8" and "Maciste 13" would be later songs).

Maybe it was the low expectations but I really enjoyed every listen of this work, even so I can't help but feel that the final result is somewhat simplistic but I don't regret having chosen it to make my discographical tour of the band.