Although the fifth album from Gojira could be pigeonholed into the metal genre, through Joseph Duplantier’s aggressive vocals and Mario Duplantier’s brutal drumming; there’s nothing to say that L’Enfant Sauvage shouldn’t appeal to all rock music fans. Particularly given the ear for melody that the band displays throughout along with album’s excellent pacing.
“Explosia” is the huge six-minute opener, spanning three different and equally awesome sections, ending on what could best be described as a metal version of a spaghetti western theme. Following this, the title track is quite simply a shit-hot rock song – repeating a tense guitar riff for its first half before morphing into a huge and ecstatically violent thrash metal head-banging moment.
Although the album is full of exhilarating stadium-sized rock, like the choruses of “Liquid Fire”, “Gift of Guilt”, or the extended outro to “Mouth of Kala”; the calming interludes of “Born In The Winter” and especially instrumental “Wild Healer” provide nice respites for an album that may have otherwise been a bit too heavy.
L’Enfant Sauvage – intense, ferocious, honest, and one of the best metal albums of the year.
– Wyatt Lawton-Masi
