The Link

Well, the review title says it all, doesn’t it? “From Mars To Sirius” was the first Gojira album I bought, and I thought it was pretty good. It had a nice mix of death, thrash, doom, and possibly others thrown in there. A good album all-round.

Subsequently, I found Gojira’s “The Link” in a shop and I thought, oh, what the hell, and I bought it. Upon the completion of the first listen I wasn’t gobsmacked in any way, but I thought it was good. After a while, I realised that I was listening to “The Link” more than their follow-up, and that’s when I decided that I liked this album more.

It’s definitely much heavier, with raw production, but everything stands out perfectly. Nothing is too loud or too soft. Joe Duplantier’s voice has a more raspy, deep tone here as well, making the whole experience much heavier, which is more suited to this album than “From Mars To Sirius”.

One aspect that’s noticed is that their writing skills on this album don’t match that on their next album, but ironically, this actually makes the songs better. The reason is because they experimented with different sounds and styles, which make for a nice spread of songs. “Death Of Me”, for example, has some weird soft guitar riffing at the start, which shows that they didn’t quite have the knack for it just yet. But, on the other hand, it’s completely unexpected, which is one of the most important things in music. The end of “Remembrance” is also good, with the guitars and bass drums following the same thing until fade-out. Nice stuff.

What makes the album complete more-so, is the final track “Dawn”, a complete instrumental piece that actually DOESN’T suck! Sometimes, final track instrumental’s are a pile of shit (see She Said Destroy’s “Morituri Te Salutant”), but then there can be really good one’s (see Chimaira’s “Implements of Destruction””). Fortunately, “Dawn” falls into the latter category, and it’s something to look forward to through the album.

So, all in all, this album is definitely some good death metal, with nice vocals and excellent instrumentation throughout. A nice mixture of songs from slow (the start of “Inward Movement” and “Indians”) to fast (middle section of “Inward Movement” and “Wisdom Comes”) to some pure death metal pieces (title track, “Remembrance”). Personally, it’s better than “From Mars To Sirius”, and most death metallers should like this.

Best tracks: The Link, Remembrance, Inward Movement, Dawn