The 2013 Arsies: January 28, 2013

January 28, 2013

We start our fifth week of metal mayhem with two longstanding fan favorites, Gojira and Shadows Fall.
As luck would have it, I got to see Gojira headline a show last week. It was a good show, and the band were very precise and energetic performers. But the thing that really caught my notice was the pit, which was unpredictedly ferocious. That's as good a simile as any for the L'Enfant Sauvage experience for me. As you listen to the album, you can hear good craftsmanship in its components, especially in the heavy and precise guitars. This is Gojira's best album yet, featuring at least half a dozen bona fide metal classics.
Shads is similarly epic, and Fire From The Sky is their most ambitious album to date. You can hear the band's high watermark of timelessness in the album's title track, as catchy and memorable as it is snarling. Alas, it's not enough of a classic to outpace Gojira, who takes the day... just barely.
Tomorrow, Enabler challenges High on Fire.