Flying Whales: Every Gojira album to date, ranked from worst to best

Since becoming a household name practically overnight (to the average person, anyway) with their Olympics opening ceremony performance, which saw the band triple their monthly Spotify listeners, there has been a lot of renewed discussion around Gojira’s back catalogue. With a career spanning a quarter century and 7 albums, now’s as good a time as any to rank them. As with any discography ranking, this list is completely subjective, and we welcome you to comment your own down below. Now, without further adieu, let’s get to it.

#7 – Fortitude – (2021)

Let’s get one thing clear right out of the gate, Gojira don’t have any bad albums. Fortitude is still a solid record, especially for a band nearly 20 years into their careers. With infectiously catchy singles like “Another World” and “Into The Storm” doubling down on Magma‘s more streamlined, alternative metal style, the band continued the delicate balance of pummeling heaviness and mainstream accessibility that they so carefully walked on their previous album. Where Fortitude lets down, however, is in its failure to evolve Gojira’s sound. Outside of the neat Brazilian influences in Amazonian, which recall  Roots-era Sepultura, and…whatever the hell “The Chant” is supposed to be, the band are mostly just going through the motions here. Even Joe Duplantier seems to be aware of this, as evidenced by the lyrics in “Grind”. All that said, Gojira playing it safe is still Gojira at the end of the day, and Fortitude rightly earned them their highest placement on the charts yet. I just hope that the next album is a bit more fresh.

#6 – Terra Incognita (2001)

Terra Incognita is a Latin term, which roughly translates to “unknown land”. That term, which Gojira’s 2001 debut derives its name, can best describe the band’s philosophy at the time. They took a kind of “everything and the kitchen sink” approach with Terra, fusing their death metal roots with elements of groove metal, prog, post-rock and ambient. The result was an album that, while clearly primarily derived from the spacey death metal of mid-period Morbid Angel, sounded like nothing else out there. Even otherwise straightforward cuts, like opening rager “Clone,” still throw curveballs with its atmospheric bridge and clean vocals. Elsewhere, “Satan Is A Lawyer” gives us a twisted take on contemporary nu-metal. “1990 Quantrillon De Tonnes” also sticks out as a particularly disturbing piece of post-rock, with its haunting shrieks and moans contrasting the track’s ethereal guitar work. Terra Incognita is a portrait of an ambitious young band, yet to find their sound. It’s a bit of a mess, but an utterly unique one.

#5 – The Link – (2003)

The Link saw Gojira honing their sound, taking the wild blending of genres present on their debut and trimming the fat. They also put a lot of focus into cohesion and concept, striving to write a record that flowed seamlessly. In the process, they crafted an album that’s simultaneously shorter, yet more sprawling and “epic” feeling. The title track and “Remembrance” both exemplify this focus, merging their death metal roots with that distinct sense of groove they’d come to be known for. Drummer Mario Duplantier also really comes into his own here. Moving away from the more traditional death metal drumming of “Terra”, he begins to incorporate tribal influences, machine gun double kick bursts and a generally more complex and progressive approach to his drumming. Don’t go thinking that he can’t still blast with the best of them though, just listen to his performance on “Wisdom Comes!” Though it suffers from fairly dry production and doesn’t quite reach the heights of the albums that came later, The Link is perhaps the most crucial album in Gojira’s evolution. It laid the groundwork for the classics that followed it, and its importance would be foolish to ignore.

#4 – Magma – (2016)

I’ll be completely honest, I didn’t like Magma when it came out. To my snobbish, teenage metalhead brain, Gojira had sold out big time. Gone for the most part were the death metal riffs, the blast beats, and the epic song lengths. In their place was a stronger focus on groove’s and catchy hooks, with Joe Duplantier’s clean vocals being more prominent than ever. What I failed to consider at the time, was that Gojira had been teasing this shift in sound for several albums now, going all the way back to “Indians” off of The Link. I also hadn’t appreciated the emotional weight of the lyrics, which largely dealt with the passing of the Duplantier brothers’ mother, and the superb sense of atmosphere across the whole of the album. While “Stranded” may be their “Enter Sandman,” deep cuts like “Low Land” and the title track showcased a sense of texture reminiscent of post-metal acts like ISIS. With additional barn burners like “Silvera” and “Pray”, Magma gave us a lot of variety that I didn’t fully grasp in 2016. I’ve learned to appreciate it a lot over the years though, and while I don’t think it quite measures up to the band’s classics, it’s a damn fine example of radio metal done right.

#3 – L’enfant Sauvage – (2012)

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