04.08.2018 Gojira

Wacken Open Air XXIX

Wacken (Germany)

(Pentax K-5 with Sigma AF 70-200mm 2.8 EX DC APO HSM II)

Two bands inside the tent should be enough. Time for some more fresh air and so back to the Faster Stage. There it was already quite crowded, and the people were looking forward to Gojira. They showed directly what they are capable of and got the audience really moving.
The French can meanwhile look back onto a long band history (at least they were founded in 1996 already) and are still playing with the same line-up. 2016 their last album “Magma” was released and that should shape the hot gig of that band. And this hot is not only related to this year’s Wacken temperatures or the album name but rather especially to the fiery performance. Again and again fire columns were ignited on stage and the guys around singer and guitarist Joseph Duplantier were posing aggressively really well fitting to the varying music. All albums were integrated into the setlist and of course the inflatable whales may not be missing flying across the audience properly to the sounds of “Flying Whales” of the 2005 album “From Mars To Sirius”. You could enjoy powerful loud music accompanied by great video clips (e.g. whales and sea scenes during “Flying Whales”, volcanoes and magma currents during “Explosia”). The style is very complex and the terrific drum rhythms of drummer Mario Duplantier paired with the hard growls and great clear voice singing parts of his brother Joseph together with the driving guitar and bass tracks of Christian Andreu and Jean Michel Labadie are the things that form the pleasure of that music. In each case they cannot simply be put into one category and due to this they are already a singularity in metal circus.
The atmosphere was gorgeous and the band really knew to heat it up even more. That was really a big show that they presented and it could have taken place at a later hour where the fire and video effects would have shown better to advantage. The people in front of the stage were falling all over themselves and also I was completely delighted. That was the highlight of the day for sure (at least for me it was).