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Dossier Gojira

Event : The Listening Of Gojira
City : Paris (France)
Date : 2008-09-10
Time : 18H

The listening of Gojira’s latest album, « The way of all flesh » took place at the Cantada, a rock-metal Café located in the 11th district of Paris. The decoration is nothing but usual: the paintings on the wall and on the bar are mixing in an awful way H.R Giger’s touch and the spirit of a colorful flashy cartoon! The listening is taking place in a cave looking underground. About 89 decibels on average, it begins:








1/ the song opens with a doubled and repeated riff, whose sound looks just like an organ. The jerky rhythmic reminds us of the madness of Meshuggah. The voice seems more distant than usual and is enriched with echoes. At the end of the song, a little slow motion gives way to a brutal ending. The first track is disturbing and insistent. This album will be surreal.

2/ First surprise: the opening of the song is also articulated around an organ, giving to the song a gloomy atmosphere, just like “Dead can dance”. The guitars are very technical. As the introduction ends, the rhythmic becomes cleaner before moving back to some more syncopated rhythms. Joe’s scream is with echoes and its rhythm is more classical and slower. It’s an apocalyptical ending with the voice even farther than before that ends up this very good song.

3/ Second good surprise, “A sight to behold” possesses industrial tones. Joe’s voice, almost mechanical, sounds like a robot. This song is very groovy and we can easily imagine Joe rocking his guitar back and forth. The drum is beaten up, giving to the voice an impression of heaviness all along the song.

4/ Here, the riffs come as heavy as a rock. We can hear the usual bearings, with a little hook every ten bits making the song even catchier. The tempo speeds up to conclude with two measures played repeatedly while we can hear a siren in the distance.

5/ The atmosphere of “The silver cord” is liquid, aquatic. The cymbals and the bells ring, giving to the song a calm and fluid tone. No voice on this track, it’s only an interlude. The calm before the storm…

6/ A rupture bursts after thirty seconds. The guitars rise, supported by the drums. The apogee of the song is quickly reached. This is some classical Gojira violence, with brutal riffs on the guitars. This track is the symbol of the outlet.

7/ A brutal introduction, with guitars that go down the scale and drums breaks. A long, faraway cry can be heard above double riffs. The fake ending moves forward like a train. The music resumes; it's not the end, they won't leave it at that. The guitars descend and bump into each other, and lead to an ending in decrescendo.



8/ “The art of dying” deserves its name. Some techno beats mixed up with a didgeridoo and a bamboo surround us. This introduction sounds tribal and electric. Everything explodes on a steady riff added to a distant “ohm” which is supported by an Hitchcock-like scream. The drum is slapping. The middle of the song is calm and emphasizes rubbed aspect of the guitar strings. Joe sings and seems to be suffering from and because of the lyrics. Celestial…

9/ The introduction could have been part of the “Queen of the damned” original soundtrack because of its oriental sounds. What’s coming after is very violent with some incredibly heavy riffs, taken up by clear and melodic guitars. The outro is nothing but the introduction. This song is a palindrome. A storm bursts out at the end. For sure, this song is one of the most brilliant of the album.

10/ The sound is groovy, straight and imperial. It could be compared to a sort of march. The riffs slow down, preparing Joe’s screams. This track is at the same time simple and complicated, and it will deserve several listening.

11/ More classical, the voice arrives after 1mn30. The tempo is very syncopated, almost jazzy. The end is also more classical, with four swinging bars at the drum, and an end that could remind us of symphonic metal.

12/ “The way of all flesh” concludes this album in a very sensual way. The beginning chimes progressively, quite repeatedly, becoming almost hypnotic, reminding the song “Global warming”. There are still lots of violence supported by some raging screams. The voice becomes slow and mechanical while the drum uses lots of cymbals. And it all ends on a Larsen. A noble ending…



This is how the first listening of this album ends. We’re knocked out by so much heaviness and become already frustrated by this first and only listening.

But can we trust a single listening?

Once again, Gojira took some initiatives, evolving sometimes into risks. However, the numerous and brilliant surprises are colored by some more classical songs. Gojira has always evolved and gives us here an excellent album. Prepare yourselves…


Event : Gojira : Press Conference
City : Paris (France)
Date : 2008-09-10
Time : 20H




Once upon a cloudy, cold day, Daddy Duplantier decided to take his children to the zoo – but not just any zoo. Not the kind of place where you can taunt elephants and monkeys behind the safety fence. Not the kind of place where you can throw peanut to a poor innocent tiger and try and convince yourself you’re an animal lover.

Gojira found the courage to get unprotected into a cage full of wild animals: a cage full of journalists, hungry for criticism and in need of a good reason to complain. Just try to imagine: your band has just added the finishing touches to a new album; you enter a squalid room full of experts that have gathered here to dissect every arpeggio, analyse every lyric. Fortunately, you don't attend the autopsy itself, but you still take the risk to face 20 journalists in the worst conditions ever - yes, someone was silly enough to give them beers on top of it all.

After us journalists are done listening to « The Way of All Flesh », Joe Duplantier (guitar / vocals), his brother Mario (drums), Jean-Michel Labadie (bass) and Christian Andreu (guitar) come into the room, looking relaxed and almost childishly carefree. The conference lasted an hour and a half; 90 delightful minutes which passed by very quickly and smoothly, except for our sound recorders, who died about 20 minutes into the conference, as Joe kindly pointed out to us ("I think this one just died"). Here is the report of the interview.


The conversation was extremely varied, going from music to the psychological analysis of the band, from good memories to anecdotes, and from the notion of art to a reflection on French culture. Not to forget, of course, the usual and uninteresting sequential questions.

The news regarding the band were covered in only a few questions:

- The band will travel farther for their next tour - namely to Australia and Japan. And because it's been too long since we last saw Gojira on stage as the main act, we're glad to learn that the band will be on tour from February 2009. This news was given to us by the band's charming tour manager, whose presence disturbed most of the male journalists in the room - and probably made us miss a few important pieces of information. Not fair, Gojira.

- Their fourth album isn’t even out yet, but the band already have a few extra riffs for a fifth one. Productive guys.


A logical follow-up of the listening session, the interview allows the band to talk about the new album, the central theme of which is an original reflection on life through the idea of death. Have a look at our interview for more a more detailed explanation. The main concept is to perform a kind of exorcism on death to make it look less scary. “We’re all starting to get old. I’m in my thirties now, so it’s natural that we should think about death”, Joe says. Once again, this album is extremely introspective. As a matter of interest, Joe is said to have attended the lessons of a Buddhist monk, not far from their rehearsal studio.

The band remain true to their ecological message - which, according to them, should be more important than any other message: “Politically speaking, it’s an absolute priority. It’s nice to take an interest in social and humanitarian issues, but when the sea level starts to rise, it will all have been for nothing. Mankind is going too far in its exploitation of the planet." Joe Duplantier is not only pertinent when it comes to the environment; he also understands the current situation of the French musical culture: "Our country has been deeply affected by the Second World War. While we were rebuilding our cities, the English-speaking countries were devoting themselves to culture, and huge bands were born during this period. Brandishing a French flag is considered to be an almost fascist thing - that's because we're only just starting to cheer up."

Gojira is an amazingly accessible, humble and open-minded band with a very smart message. Their openmindedness makes them use ant aspects of their environment in their music: "Even a can falling from a table can inspire us!” You can thus hear on the album the bamboos Mario had once salvaged in a forest and piled up in the rehearsal studio. Yes, that's the same bamboos you can hear on the very first albums (« Connected », on The Link, for instance). But Gojira go even farther: their artistic universe includes drawing, photography, maybe even more in the future (dancing, perhaps?). The band won't disown anything regarding their future evolution (female vocals, acoustic album...). In this perspective, it is interesting to learn that the band have composed the soundtrack for a silent movie (“Maciste all’Inferno”, a 1926 Italian movie): 90 minutes composed in the space of a week. Let’s all take our hats off to them.




But let’s go back to the interview itself. It’s a real intimate and sharing moment we’re offered today. Gojira's anecdote tank is rather impressive: between their tours with Slayer and Children of Bodom, their concerts with Metallica and their collaboration with the Cavalera brothers ("who had come to a point where they didn't even remember why they were supposed to hate each other"), there's almost too much to choose from. The anecdotes range from Rob Flynn (Machine Head) doing his laundry with Jean-Michel to the adventurous and exciting crossing of the US under fickle temperatures. Wanna know more about Metallica's famed inaccessibility? Ask Jean-Michel, still disgusted to have only been able to exchange a wave of the hand with James Hetfield, or to see only a square inch of Lars Ulrich’s face behind those of his bodyguards. His only privilege was to see the band in rehearsal, which, after all, is not all that bad.

The most touching anecdote for us, and the most memorable for the band, is probably their meeting with Lamb of God. It all started with Chris Adler, the drummer, falling in love with Gojira. And it ended up with Randy Blythe, who, after acting like a complete mother hen (“he would come to our tour bus every night and tuck us in our beds!”), asked if he could “come and scream on the album”.

Don’t make the mistake of going to the US without knowing Gojira: “Randy literally assaults journalists to talk about us!”




If we had to remember only one thing, it would be the band's accessibility. The proud and confident bearing displayed on stage disappeared completely – and so did the barrier between the artists and the journalists. You could easily spend an entire day talking about life, the universe and everything with this band. Not only are they accessible; they’re also humble. And humility is a rare commodity in artists. The anecdotes I talked about earlier were told with much simplicity, almost like a grandfather telling a story to his grandson. They were told with passion, and with a gleam of emotion in the eyes. Joe and his bandmates answered our questions like an amateur footballer who couldn’t believe he was playing with Johan Cruijff. The members of Gojira are impressive, because they never try to impress.

- When I wonder out loud about how successful the band is despite the violence of their music, Mario gives a very serious answer, using the themes of a universal message, the contrast in their music, the aura, the groove - but in the end, he doesn't quite understand this success himself. "It's all about charisma!" says Joe.

- A journalist wonders about the choice of the first single, « Vacuity ». Mario and Joe share a glance of complicity and confess they don't remember the conditions of this choice. So much for the metaphysical explanation.

- When Virginie insists on their status as a key figure of French metal, Christian looks very uneasy and seems reluctant to answer. The band seem almost overwhelmed by their own success. “We were in the right place at the right time”, says Joe.

- The very first criticism concerns the lack of coherence at the beginning of the album. The answer comes immediately, but it’s a surprise: the band defends itself but admits the criticism might be true. "We would love to listen to this album without thinking about all the work we've done, so we could be more objective. We like this kind of criticism because journalists hear and see many more things than we do.” Now that’s nice.

- To crown it all, when our recorder died on us again the day after the press conference, Mario was the one to apologize!




This press conference marked by kindness and modesty was concluded with a couple of pictures and rather lengthy "off the record" conversations with the band. Actually, that’s how Joe ended up giving his number to Virginie, but that's another story.

I’m aware I’ve been harping on Gojira’s humility, but we must remember that this great symbolic band is composed of four guys who barely make their livings with it. The press conference and the ensuing conversations served to remind us of this gap. But don’t let yourselves be fooled, it’s the same for a lot of foreign bands: Nevermore, Lamb of God, even Soilwork are all like Gojira. All these great bands barely earn the minimum wage.

NB : Thanks to Victor Lazarovici for his help.

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