The Link

When I started this project, I didn't think I was having doubts at this point, Gojira's first album is to this day the one I have given the worst grade and in the second part of this series, referring to their EP "Maciste all Infierno" it is my shortest review to date, because although the content of this last piece of music was superior to what I had found in the first album the content was too poor for me to expand on it. And now finding myself in this third part of this series and facing Gojira's second album I am facing the same problem.

The music has certainly improved, I don't know whether to say that they as musicians have progressed or if it's that groove style that I hated so much on "Terra Incognita" has finally grown on me. I was certainly at a dilemma because I started to question if maybe I couldn't fully understand Gojira's style without having previously listened to those who are considered their spiritual fathers, among many others, obviously I'm talking about Meshuggah, which I had never listened to before. So this has caused that I have been forced to listen to the first albums of the swedish band in order to make a contrast, which has annoyed me because I had planned to do with Meshuggah the same thing I am doing with Gojira, but without a doubt what has annoyed me the most is that after listening to Meshuggah's early discography I can say without fear that the style of the swedes is a million steps above that of Gojira. It's not just that Meshuggah is above it in terms of creativity and the use of progressive and jazzy elements, but that they make it sound good, they don't get boring, and they don't get pretentious, even though they are. At the current moment, as sad as it sounds, the best thing Gojira has brought to me is having listened to Meshuggah.

But I don't want to be overly harsh on this album either because, unlike their first work, this one didn't leave me wanting to rip my ears off after finishing listening to it, however I can't deny that with a few exceptions this album seems rather harmless to me. There are certain parts in some songs that seem to reach something, but they remain in punctual moments, almost in all the songs they have some moment where the sound begins to work, but it lasts little, it is even comical that their want to innovate and to sound more progressive end up being what drags them down.

Maybe this is a basic problem, because I start to believe that they have a very concrete idea of how to make an album and instead of adapting the album to their ideas they do it the other way around, I can't understand what is the point of the three instrumentals of the album, this is the same as with "Terra Incognita", I think it's nonsense and that they are adding them because they think that adding short instrumentals gives "atmosphere" to their work, but the case is far from being like that. And I have talked about 3 meaningless instrumentals, so I also add the final track "Dawn" in this category even though it is not short, in fact it is the longest track, and it happens to be the final one, just like in "Terra Incognita" what a surprise... It's as if they believe that to make the album more complete it has to have a song of "epic" dimensions at the end, and I'm sorry but "Dawn" is a song that doesn't take advantage of its length at all, it hardly varies, and it doesn't go anywhere, until someone disproves me I will believe that it's an improvisation added at the last-minute.

With its small flashes, "The Link" has not impressed me, especially the final sections, "Over the Flows" is an atrocity and "Wisdom Comes" is totally forgettable, maybe if they had removed those songs and the instrumentals they would have left a decent ep with some moments of brilliance that could serve as a basis for a better musical future, although if we compare this album with the début there is a noticeable improvement, so there is still hope.