Gojira & Lacuna Coil @ The Roundhouse
Gojira prove nature is metal at crushing Sydney show.
Review by Natasha Christian photos by James Gough
Gojira’s fourth time in Australia kicked off with a headline show at Sydney’s UNSW Roundhouse on Tuesday, November 28.
When it comes to the saying “nature is metal”, Gojira is obviously the soundtrack. For 26 years, the band has told us dark fables of Flying Whales while championing animal rights and condemning our environmental shame (Toxic Garbage Island, Global Warming, Another World … the list goes on). Yet despite the climate-focused political trimmings throughout their music, Gojira, Japanese for Godzilla, is a band that can unify a crowd of diverse metalheads and keep them happy for hours.
The French four-piece kicked off their first headline tour of Australia earlier this week at Sydney’s UNSW Roundhouse, supported by Italian alt-rockers Lacuna Coil. The Roundhouse is an odd choice for Gojira, as their infamous live show felt a bit restricted here. Yet the band still delivered a cataclysmic set, jam-packed with crushing death metal riffs, booming prog bass lines, perfectly timed lights and (eco-friendly questionable?) CO2 cannons. It’s a show that also features arguably the best live drumming this generation of metal has to offer. In case you’re curious how Mario Duplantier can be this good, it’s said he practices drums up to 5 hours a day. Remarkably, he still somehow has the time to draw and paint sellable art too.
Throughout the show, vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Duplantier took the crowd on a journey into the wild, welcoming us with Fortitude opener Born for One Thing and Backbone (From Mars to Sirius). I naively thought Gojira might peak early, playing crowd favourites Stranded and Flying Whales before the 30-minute mark. Oh boy, was I wrong. From there the band took us right back to the start with death metal classics Love and Remembrance. My favourite moment of the night was the anthemic and timely Another World. I did think it was a shame that at some points Duplantier’s distinct and impressive vocals were drowned out by the ferocity of everything else going on. But it’s not an easy task to break through with lead guitarist Christian Andreu and bassist Jean-Michel Labadie standing beside you.
I was pleased to see the band offer some gestures of humanity - something they’re so well known for. Andreu dropped his axe for a moment to make sure the crowd had enough water and a smiling Mario Duplantier seemed happy to hang back at the end to greet some very chuffed fans. The night wrapped up with the crowd chanting “10 more songs'' which got a laugh out of Joe Duplantier. In the end, we didn’t get that, but we did get a couple more from Fortitude - Amazonia and New Found.
If you’re tossing up who to see at Good Things 2022, don’t hesitate to put Gojira at the top of your list. Oh, and definitely bring your earplugs.
