Terra Incognita

I've heard of Gojira on multiple occasions, but curiously our paths have never crossed, so, I decided to stop waiting for coincidences and embark on my own towards the discography of one of the best known bands of modern European metal.

And our first meeting was... Disappointing.

Normally when I decide to do a review I usually listen to the album a good number of times, that helps me to familiarize myself with the songs, it allows me to hear details that may go unnoticed in the first listens and reflect more deeply on them, Gojira's "Terra Incognita" has caused me not to want to listen to it again, this for myself has already been a proof that a second listen will only worsen my perception of it, since, I will do it in a bad mood. Still, I made the effort to give it at least two listens and once I think I have the album well assimilated I went inside to tear it apart.

First, I think this album easily contains almost all the elements I hate from the metal world, at times Gojira try to be as "groove" as possible, as if it was pure Pantera worship, what it seems is that they didn't understand the work of Pantera, a riff no matter how heavy it sounds if it's not a good riff is worthless and on Terra Incognita you'll get tired of listening to weak riffs that have nothing memorable about them. Besides the poverty in the riffs and the crude attempt to sound heavy, I also consider it is an insult how they try to make believe they are playing complex compositions, we get it, you like "Obscura", but your songs are boring and a false perception of the complexity based on playing interlocking rhythms doesn`t make your songs better, if anything, it makes them more pretentious when they don't have the level to be.

And yes, that's the last element I hate about this album, that despite being a minor work that doesn't achieve more than being a tribute to bands that did well what these French try to imitate, is that it's pretentious, with those instrumentals that go nowhere and that superficial and long ending, the album could have ended on track 12 "Love" but of course they needed to end with a very long song that has nothing special or memorable, and that even more is preceded by equally boring previous instrumental that fails miserably to be atmospheric because by the time this comes I have my brain fried from so many failed attempts of previous "groove". The album doesn´t need those last segments, but of course they are acting like "Hey we are Gojira and besides being heavy and technical we are also progressive and atmospheric. We have it all, how cool are we"? No, you are boring, pretentious and untalented. It's been such a long time since an album made me so angry, it's my fault for forcing myself to look for something positive and listen to the album on numerous occasions when I should have written these very words once i finished it for first time.

My journey through Gojira's discography will continue soon, surely the next of them will please me more since the expectations are low, besides my next stop will not be "The Link" but "Maciste all Inferno" which called my attention.

I give it 7/100 because among all the garbage on the album I consider the song "Blow Me Away You(niverse)" to be decent, but I don't even see it as a song through which I can create a path that leads to a better musical outcome, it's like a song that could be played on the local hard rock station and I'd find it passable.

I hope I don't regret starting this journey because a part of me is already doing it.