Another "Magma" but but even more soporific. This is alternative metal now. Then the effects on Joe's voice...I don't find that incredible.
I miss "From Mars To Sirius" and "The Way Of All Flesh". Overated band now, in MY opinion.

Written by MMEmperor on 30.04.2021 at 15:39

Another "Magma" but but even more soporific. This is alternative metal now. Then the effects on Joe's voice...I don't find that incredible.
I miss "From Mars To Sirius" and "The Way Of All Flesh". Overated band now, in MY opinion.

it might seem stupid, but i think this is more like deathcore than "prog death"

Written by musclassia on 30.04.2021 at 15:38

Written by MahoDM on 30.04.2021 at 14:50

Written by Metal Rasputin on 30.04.2021 at 03:40

What's up with the 1's? Is it really THAT bad?

i think that there are always some people like that, also on the new cc album there were. I think its not that bad, but still not great

Yeah, by this point I expect every album by every vaguely major band has somebody voting a 1 on it, the joys of a voting system I guess

Usually the amount of people that vote 1 simply because of their hate for the band, are balanced or even offsetted by those that vote 10 simply because it's an album of their favorite band.

Deathcore? no. Somehow you can find a bit of Mastodon in this music now. It definitely feels ligther than their previous work. People seem to find it's boring now, but I think it's still fairly good. My only complaint is that it feels like a mashup of previous albums. Every "new" riff or new sound feels like I've heard it before . It's just slighty reshaped. That's underwhelming. But I can imagine people new to Gojira listening to this and thinking that it's impressive work.

Written by Ansercanagicus on 30.04.2021 at 16:31

Deathcore? no. Somehow you can find a bit of Mastodon in this music now. It definitely feels ligther than their previous work. People seem to find it's boring now, but I think it's still fairly good. My only complaint is that it feels like a mashup of previous albums. Every "new" riff or new sound feels like I've heard it before . It's just slighty reshaped. That's underwhelming. But I can imagine people new to Gojira listening to this and thinking that it's impressive work.

I only felt that way with Into the storm and a little of Amazonia
the rest is top notch

Written by MMEmperor on 30.04.2021 at 15:39

Another "Magma" but but even more soporific. This is alternative metal now. Then the effects on Joe's voice...I don't find that incredible.
I miss "From Mars To Sirius" and "The Way Of All Flesh". Overated band now, in MY opinion.

I think this album is far more superior than Magma .... and I loved Magma

I'm actually positively surprised by this album, I was expecting something far inferior to Magma, but it is just as good, maybe even a little bit better. Still a far cry from their best though...

Written by Ansercanagicus on 30.04.2021 at 16:31

Deathcore? no. Somehow you can find a bit of Mastodon in this music now. It definitely feels ligther than their previous work. People seem to find it's boring now, but I think it's still fairly good. My only complaint is that it feels like a mashup of previous albums. Every "new" riff or new sound feels like I've heard it before . It's just slighty reshaped. That's underwhelming. But I can imagine people new to Gojira listening to this and thinking that it's impressive work.

Glad you mention Mastodon because that's a very good comparison, maybe not musically, but the way the bands have evolved. If you look at Mastodon their three first albums (four if you count Call Of The Mastodon) is way heavier than the ones that followed starting with Crack The Skye. There isn't much left of Remission or Leviathan in Mastodon's sound anymore but they still release excellent although much softer albums, even winning Grammys. Gojira has obviously gone down the same path. I can agree that they're not as diverse as Mastodon in their songwriting though. Still, bands mature and evolve their sound so for me it's quite natural that Gojira has gone softer because they're not in their 20's anymore. People seem to forget that hey've been around for 25 years already. For me there's nothing worse than a band that stagnates and keeps releasing the same album over and over again thus losing all relevancy in the progress to all but the hardcore fans. What's the point if they kept releasing From Mars To Sirius clones. You would only be listening to From Mars To Sirius anyway then.
As a conclusion I like old Gojira but I also like newer, softer Gojira just as much.

Sound-wise this is the perfect blend between old and new Gojira, it's right in between both eras. I can tell this album will age well and will be highly appreciated by old and new fans (mark my words). Music composition / musicianship is outstanding, very memorable as well as its great production quality. Gojira is an ever-evolving band who dares to explore without fear and in my opinion once again were successful accomplishing it. Overall great album \m/

Quote:
Yeah, by this point I expect every album by every vaguely major band has somebody voting a 1 on it, the joys of a voting system I guess

I can't think of a single album I'd rate a 1. Even Lulu I'd give a 3.

I listened to it today, I thought it was good. I'll rate it after a couple more listens.

Not their best, but still a great album

Feels weird to be a fan of a bands newer work rather than the older material, especially one with such a large fanbase. I'm usually on the other side thinking how the band went to shit! For me, Gojira's older albums just felt chaotic and all over the place. I haven't been able to get into them. Gojira's newer work still has heaviness but sounds a lot more concise and catchy. Anyway, this is the first Gojira album I've ever purchased and so far I'm really liking it! I loved the singles on Magma but never actually bought the album. Perhaps Fortitude will end up as a gateway for me to get into their older albums. We'll see!

Written by WorpeX on 01.05.2021 at 01:06

Feels weird to be a fan of a bands newer work rather than the older material,


That's how I feel about Behemoth. I love their last three albums, but before that it's more of a struggle for me.

Written by Nejde on 30.04.2021 at 12:46

Not gonna drop any names [...]

That's very noble of you, but I don't even think it's shabby to publicly name those who abuse the rating system and ignore clear and simple rules. The thread "rating abuse" exists for good reasons.

Because if you take a look at the usual suspects, you will quickly see a common pattern: these users are almost always hiding in the background, it's hard to reach out to them. They don't participate in discussions, there are no posts, no user lists, no community points, no nothing. The only recognizable contribution from this loose group of mute and anonymously lurking users is that they are doling out unwarranted and sometimes outright absurd ratings.

I believe this type of demeanor is a good deal more reprehensible than a public flaunting of wrongdoing, no matter if it's FlowMaster33's, nil6's or JimmyMagnetar's misbehaviour.

Written by Starvynth on 01.05.2021 at 05:35

That's very noble of you, but I don't even think it's shabby to publicly name those who abuse the rating system and ignore clear and simple rules. The thread "rating abuse" exists for good reasons.

Because if you take a look at the usual suspects, you will quickly see a common pattern: these users are almost always hiding in the background, it's hard to reach out to them. They don't participate in discussions, there are no posts, no user lists, no community points, no nothing. The only recognizable contribution from this loose group of mute and anonymously lurking users is that they are doling out unwarranted and sometimes outright absurd ratings.

I believe this type of demeanor is a good deal more reprehensible than a public flaunting of wrongdoing, no matter if it's FlowMaster33's, nil6's or JimmyMagnetar's misbehaviour.

Honestly I didn't even know this thread existed so thank for drawing my attention to it. And it was JimmyMagnetar I was talking about. He rates almost every album released every Friday and they are already rated in the morning. Looking at his profile he's from Poland, same timezone as me, so there is no way he had time to listen to all those albums in such short time and then give a proper rating. Since my post yesterday he has rated another 20 albums.

I don't even rate all albums I like and I never rate before I've listened from start to finish at least three times. And occasionally I come back at a later time and change a rating after more listenings to give a more fair assessment of the album in question.



Regarding Fortitude I've come to the conclusion that Amazonia is my favourite track closely followed by Another World and Grind.

Written by Nejde on 30.04.2021 at 17:30

Mastodon

I feel like Mastodon are actually an interesting reference point for this kind of discussion, because in 2017 they released two records that both sounded very distinct from the 00s output. Emperor Of Sand was the more conventional one, and one that I found myself trying to force myself to like, before I eventually admitted it didn't do that much for me and have very rarely revisited since; on the flip side, Cold Dark Place was a softer, more atmospheric EP, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it.

For me, a band changing sound in and of itself isn't a bad thing - for all the bands that I've gotten into, only to see them change to something I enjoy less, there's others (The Contortionist, The Ocean, Rolo Tomassi, or as someone else mentioned in this thread, Behemoth) that changed sound and subsequently developed into something I enjoyed more as a result; hell, even Gojira only became something I really enjoyed on From Mars To Sirius, I never listen to Terra Incognito or The Link. However, as much as being open-minded to new sounds is a virtue when listening to music, the new material has to be enjoyable on its own merits; there's more than enough non-metal music that I like such that I don't need to force myself to enjoy a heavier band becoming more 'accessible' in order to keep up appearances of being open-minded. For albums like Sorceress by Opeth or Emperor Of Sand, I find them much less enjoyable than many of their older albums, but I also find them somewhat unsatisfying regardless of who made them, and if they were by some new band, I would've probably just given them one or two listens and forgotten them (maybe taking a few songs from Emperor of Sand with me), so as much as the comparisons with their previous material is a bit of a curse, the bands do benefit from me giving their albums more time to work courtesy of liking their material so much in the past.

In the case of Fortitude, I'm coming to the end of playthrough #6, and will likely give it 3-4 more this weekend before hopefully popping out my review soon. To be honest, I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it - it's generally solid enough, and there's quite a few moments that I find myself getting really caught up in, but there's also quite a bit that leaves me relatively indifferent. It's an album that I can probably see myself revisiting a few years down the line, like I still do with Magma (although not L'enfant Sauvage, funnily enough), but I do suspect that if this was some unknown band that I casually checked out, I doubt I would've felt much incentive to give it a second glance when set against all the other new releases that I'm trying to keep on top of, and that's slightly disappointing for a Gojira album.

Written by Nejde on 30.04.2021 at 17:30

For me there's nothing worse than a band that stagnates and keeps releasing the same album over and over again thus losing all relevancy in the progress to all but the hardcore fans. What's the point if they kept releasing From Mars To Sirius clones. You would only be listening to From Mars To Sirius anyway then.
As a conclusion I like old Gojira but I also like newer, softer Gojira just as much.

The thing is, this new direction was L'Enfant Sauvage already. Then they again tried to reinvent their sound on Magma. I thought it failed, but there definitely was a lot of new ideas on it. This new one feels more like a mish-mash of previous ideas. I can't really see a clear path of progression the way they had up until L'Enfant Sauvage anymore.

Written by musclassia on 01.05.2021 at 13:30

if they were by some new band, I would've probably just given them one or two listens and forgotten them (maybe taking a few songs from Emperor of Sand with me), so as much as the comparisons with their previous material is a bit of a curse, the bands do benefit from me giving their albums more time to work courtesy of liking their material so much in the past.

Pretty much how I feel about it. There's definitely good stuff here if I force myself to listen to it a lot of times. A "grower", if you will.

But I kinda don't bother with records like these anymore.

Blow me away, or at least give me something I really like. It's not like this is impossible for my favourite bands either (The last respective records of Neurosis, Amenra, Japanische Kampfhörspiele, Amigo The Devil, etc. I've all very very much enjoyed). I also didn't have much hype for it either. It's just a bit bland. If this had been another band I wasn't really familiar with, I might not have even re-spun it, or forced myself to sit through the entire record.

If this wasn't Gojira, people would find this record so un-remarkable, that its album page on here would be... well, without remarks. People wouldn't be like "oh wow this is so great! I've got to tell my friends about this!!" if it was a no-name band.

Written by Lord Slothrop on 30.04.2021 at 20:47

I can't think of a single album I'd rate a 1. Even Lulu I'd give a 3.

Maybe that defeats the entire point of a voting system then, eh? It's almost like rating art with numbers doesn't work, particularly when comparing ratings by 2 different people.

I didn't get as thrilled as so many people did about Fortitude. Pretty average record. I don't know why metal bands have been sacrificing their heaviness to replace it with doubtful-quality effects, especially the electronic ones.

I started listening to Gojira with L'enfant sauvage. I have listened to their older albums and even though they contain some legendary tracks, none of them capture the feeling of L'enfant for me. Magma was great, too, but this latest offering is a bummer. Sad, slow and very boring. As others have mentioned, if this was another band, people wouldn't even give it a chance. There's a ton of amazing bands out there and they deserve better.

Gojira is on continuation on evolution that started 5 years ago. There was cold, technical, raw Gojira (Terra Incognita, The Link), most popular heavy and more narrative Gojira (From Mars To Sirius, The Way Of All Flesh, L'enfant Sauvage). And now we've got more soft, dreamy, meditative band (Magma, Fortitude). My problem is, that they almost completely abandoned their signature heavy guitar tone.

Written by Desha on 01.05.2021 at 20:59

Written by Lord Slothrop on 30.04.2021 at 20:47

I can't think of a single album I'd rate a 1. Even Lulu I'd give a 3.

Maybe that defeats the entire point of a voting system then, eh? It's almost like rating art with numbers doesn't work, particularly when comparing ratings by 2 different people.

One thing I've found very helpful when rating an album is that every number has a written rating too. Whereas a 1 is "Worst ever" and a 10 is "Perfect". It's these words that decide what rating I will give. For an instance I think Fortitude is "Excellent" therefore I gave it a 9. When I listen to Hail Spirit Noir's Eden In Reverse I always listen start to finish without skipping songs and I have a really hard time turning it off once I pressed Play, thus it's "Perfect" and a 10.
One of the two 5's I've rated through the years is just recently and it was the new Evanescence album. That's a very unforgettable album. Still it's not a 4 - "Bad" because Amy Lee still has one hell of a voice and it has a good production at least. Therefore a 5 - "Not good". Now some might say that "not good" and "bad" has the exact same meaning and that might be true. The difference is that not good sounds less negative and that's why I chose to rate it 5 instead of 4.
Regarding Lulu I could agree on a 3 - "Very bad" because calling something "Pure shit" is kinda rude. It is horrible though which I think would be a better word used with the 2 rating because it sounds less negative but still shows how bad a 2 rating is.

Overall we have a pretty neat and helpful rating system here on MS which I like to think helps against some rating abuse at least even though we can't get rid of all the trolls.

Written by Guest on 02.05.2021 at 00:44

I didn't get as thrilled as so many people did about Fortitude. Pretty average record. I don't know why metal bands have been sacrificing their heaviness to replace it with doubtful-quality effects, especially the electronic ones.

electronic effects ?
and songs like Sphinx , Grind and New Found are Heavy af to me ( of course not as heavy as Wisdom Comes or Heaviest Matter, duh)

Written by BCI on 02.05.2021 at 09:01

I started listening to Gojira with L'enfant sauvage. I have listened to their older albums and even though they contain some legendary tracks, none of them capture the feeling of L'enfant for me. Magma was great, too, but this latest offering is a bummer. Sad, slow and very boring. As others have mentioned, if this was another band, people wouldn't even give it a chance. There's a ton of amazing bands out there and they deserve better.

it's funny that everybody has a different opinion about Gojira albums , everyone has a different favorite lol

Written by Mehrad on 02.05.2021 at 12:31

Written by Guest on 02.05.2021 at 00:44

I didn't get as thrilled as so many people did about Fortitude. Pretty average record. I don't know why metal bands have been sacrificing their heaviness to replace it with doubtful-quality effects, especially the electronic ones.

electronic effects ?
and songs like Sphinx , Grind and New Found are Heavy af to me ( of course not as heavy as Wisdom Comes or Heaviest Matter, duh)

There's some heaviness in a track or other, but overall saying, it lacks the aggressiveness their earlier albums offered. Much alike Magma, but it still had a minimal portion of heavy and aggressive music they've been so eager to deliver along their career.

Does anyone else think the production sucks? It sounds congested to me, like everything was smashed into a narrow frequency band or something. There is no bite to the guitars and no punch to the drums. Also the effects on Joe's voice are not doing it for me.

I can appreciate that the band is trying to progress their sound into something fresh, but this album is a misfire for me. New Found would be a stand out if it was two minutes or so shorter, same goes for Grind. I guess I enjoyed Sphinx or Into the Storm the most, but even those pale in comparison to some of their standout songs. Overall I liked the back half more than the front, but this is probably the album I like the least out of all the ones I have heard from them.

I can't believe the band that wrote "Backbone" and "The Heaviest Matter In The Universe" wrote this absolutely bland and boring garbo. What a shame.

This is so agressively unexciting

Written by Boxcar Willy on 04.05.2021 at 00:22

I can't believe the band that wrote "Backbone" and "The Heaviest Matter In The Universe" wrote this absolutely bland and boring garbo. What a shame.

Those two are my favourite songs from the pre L'enfant era. TBH I don'tike a single track from The way of All Flesh, and I especially dislike the first 3 tracks of the album. And that's coming from a fan! Goes to show how hard it is to please everyone...