The 2019 Arsies: January 15, 2019

January 15, 2019

Emotion	●●○	●●○
Memorability	●●●	●●●
Replayability	●●●	●●●
Innovation	●●●	●●●
Pace	●●○	●●○
Shredding	●●●	●●●
Vocals	●●○	●●○
Production	●●○	●●●
		✓

It's remarkable (and certainly not part of any plan) how well today's two competitors work together. Indeed, there are parts of Alkaloid's Liquid Anatomy that feel directly inspired by Gojira at times, but there's at play in this album of progressive death metal. That's to be expected, considering the lineage of this supergroup (Obscura, Spawn Of Possession, Aborted, Noneuclid). The band cram so many different influences and voices into their mix that at times the album threatens to fly apart. But more often than not, the resulting interplay and layers combine in a way that is accessible and gratifying.
And then there's L'Enfant Sauvage, Gojira's 2012 Roadrunner debut and still their darkest and most direct. Compared to the Alkaloid, L'Enfant Sauvage is downright spare in its elevation of The Almight Riff. Indeed, the true power of L'Enfant Sauvage lays in how Gojira consistently wield their unearthly heaviness to deploy some of the band's most memorable moments, even offering up their catchiest choruses.
At the end of the day, {L'Enfant Sauvage} is the album I'd want to come back to soonest, and so Gojira's classic advances the band! Tomorrow, we reach the halfway mark of the first round, with what is sure to be an interesting match: the latest Judas Priest album, versus Mastodon's 2009 Crack The Skye.