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Year of No Light and Gojira…

Year of No Light - NordIt's been a little over a year since I heard Year of No Light's impressive demo, and I've been quite looking forward to "Nord", the French act's debut full-length on the awesome Radar Swarm label. Needless to say, I'm quite pleased that this superb album takes their dissonant brand of rhythmic intensity to new heights, expanding in pretty much every direction to include more melody, more brute force, added post-hardcore textures, added chaotic (yet controlled) embellishments, tactful keyboard smatterings, and shimmery layers of effects over areas of the guitar work. The already generally lengthy tunes contain quite a few extended instrumental passages that carry a surprising amount of weight and emotional impact, which can make the abrasive screams all the more forceful when they fight their way forward from their deep placement amidst the instrumentation, and it's all quite fucking impressive. The recording is outstanding as well, with a great sense of density and warmth that brings everything tightly together in the mix and creates and very cohesive tide within which the shifting dynamics operate. There's a lot going on, but it doesn't seem the least bit disjointed, and it's very cool when a band is able to achieve this distinct a blend of both beautiful and punishing sounds.

Year of No Light "Tu as Fait de Moi un Homme Meilleur"
Year of No Light "Traversée"

I'll also note that this CD is atypically packaged in a jewel case-sized enveloped that folds out from all sides to reveal the disc inside a matte black paper sleeve. I don't think any lyrics are included, but most all of the text is in French so I don't really know what I'm looking at anyway!?

I can't say enough good things about Radar Swarm, so please do support their efforts if you enjoy their killer releases:

Radar Swarm
Relapse Records

Gojira - From Mars to SiriusI had been meaning to pick up a copy of Gojira's "From Mars to Sirius" for months, but was having a hard time finding a reasonably priced copy of the CD for some reason, so I was both psyched and surprised when a copy showed up in the mail from Prosthetic Records, who've licensed the album for an American release. This is by far the best thing Prosthetic has had their name on in a long time, and marks my first true exposure to the French outfit's absolutely punishing brand of intense, diverse metal. I can definitely understand why the band seems to be garnering more and more attention these days, and I'm wishing I had encountered their material sooner.

Included within this massive slab are 12 tracks (averaging six or seven minutes apiece) clocking in at over an hour and plowing through everything from churning Meshuggah-esque staccato rhythms and crisp, energetic bursts of thrashy riffing with flashy drum work reminiscent of some of Darkane's finer moments, to Gorguts-ian levels of fucked up dissonance with a death metal lean, not to mention some unexpectedly chilled out passages amongst all the powerful bludgeonings. There's just a fucking ton of shit happening here, and it's all fucking great. I mean, the vocals jump from the occasional burly growls to this interesting sort of strained yelling in key that I'm really into, and even though they switch up the riffs and tempos all over the place it doesn't come across as chaotic—probably because the bulk of the pacing keeps the speed in check, and they tend to know when to bring in little hints of melody to keep things interesting. Of course, the fact that the production's fucking amazing certainly isn't harming matters. This shit totally sounds almost shockingly pristine. The mix is clear as hell and strikes a great balance between all of the elements, the guitar tone is completely vicious and works great with the thunderous percussion... I'm impressed, for sure. You really have to hear it for yourself to gain an understanding and appreciation for what the band's really putting forth, so I'm just gonna shut the hell up:

Gojira "Ocean Planet"
Gojira "To Sirius"

Good stuff, right? So do the right thing and pick up a copy for yourself:

Prosthetic Records
Relapse Records
@ Very Distribution

Comments

  1. Gojira are one of my favourite unsung heroes (alongside Alchemist) and I’ve been a fan since I first heard Terra Incognita. Their two previous studio albums are excellent, but everything seems to come together in From Mars To Sirius. Like you said, it’s just an immense slab of music and I listen to it constantly.

    8.23.2006 | By Lal

  2. i agree completely about gojira. lots of good bands over there in france…

    8.23.2006 | By Anonymous

  3. Big fan of that Year of No Light album.  Radar Swarm continues to put out some top notch stuff.

    8.23.2006 | By Jonathan

  4. GODDAMMIT! Where have I heard that name before? Gojira….fuck…well anyways this be some hard shit!

    8.23.2006 | By Adrianoso

  5. I didn’t know the new Year of No Light was out. I’m definitely going to have to get a hold of that.

    I heard some tracks from the new Deicide. I’m actually kind of surprised. I actually sort of dig it.

    8.23.2006 | By Tyrone

  6. the Year of no light gatefold 2*lp looks crazy !

    8.24.2006 | By Anonymous

  7. the breakdown at the end of gojira’s “backbone” makes me want to smash faces. awesome album, so much going on.

    8.24.2006 | By chris

  8. The Gojira record is awesome. One of my fav records that came out last year. Hope they release something new soon.

    8.25.2006 | By HM

  9. If you haven’t already done so, for more French excellence check out Scarve and Yyrkoon (regarding the latter, get “Occult Medicine” as the new album is sub-par)

    8.29.2006 | By Lal

  10. Def a killer French band and they produce this same asstight energetic rollercoaster live on stage time and time again. So try to get your hands on “The Link” and on the DVD with the same name. They’ll blow you away again.

    8.31.2006 | By Spikey BXL

  11. Thanks for mentioning Gojira!  I hadn’t heard of them but I’m going to order the record ASAP based on the strength of these two tracks.  They sound to me like a mix of Isis with Strapping Young Lad, and hints of the bands you mentioned in the write-up.

    9.7.2006 | By andrew

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