Review Summary: Frequently surprising and fresh -- over a decade later.
Music is both a communal and individual art. It is not advised to consider an artist’s merits without an examination of his predecessors and contemporaries. At the same time, an honest evaluation of a band’s quality is not complete without an adequate assessment of their ability to maintain a consistent identity. A band’s value as an individual entity is important in the discussion of a certain album’s success. Gojira, despite their expansive list of influences, succeeds in both nurturing a unique identity while advancing the music community as a whole.
The Link, released in 2003, seems to be built upon the vast foundation of its predecessors. There are numerous traces of Gorguts’s
Obscura in Gojira’s sophomore effort. In “Inward Movement,” for example, Andreu’s guitar screeches are reminiscent of Gorguts’s “The Art of Sombre Ecstacy,” which features similar leaps in pitch. Several pieces from
The Link are also graced with the dynamic flexibility of Gorguts’s 1999 classic.
The Link is rarely monotonous, and interludes like “Connected” and “Torii” act as breaths of fresh air between each plunge into energetic entries like “Indians” and “Remembrance.” This variation gives the album a sense of maturity that is not otherwise present in the work of Gojira’s contemporaries. While more than a decade has passed since its release,
The Link maintains much of its freshness and is worthy of repeated listens despite the band’s more recent, refined efforts.
As an individual piece of art,
The Link is creative and varied. In “Indians,” rhythms are quick and restrained, while “Wisdom Comes” moves freely from a blast beat to a sludgy pace. The album is frequently “chuggy” and heavy, but Gojira’s dedication to variations in speed, energy and tone help to revitalize the ears of the listener before it is too late. “Dawn,” though less exciting than
The Link’s other entries, is a good example of this versatility. The song is composed of many different riffs, each with interesting fills and transitions. The chugginess lingers for a bit, but rarely overstays its welcome.
Unfortunately,
The Link is not flawless in its delivery. While I enjoy the creativity in each track, it is occasionally jarring for the band to alter their tone so drastically between songs. This is evident towards the end of “Remembrance,” in which the band transitions into a Meshuggah-esque rhythm. While their musicianship is more than adequate, it can feel out of place to interject such a transition. This, however, is most often surprising and engaging, as such creativity is rarely seen in death metal today.
The Link, despite its occasional leaps in tone, is worth a wholehearted listen.
