Gojira - The Link

The Link is where Gojira became Gojira. Their second album, released in 2003, is heavier and more claustrophobic than anything that came after it, and it is the record where Joe Duplantier's environmental and spiritual preoccupations first fused with the band's rhythmic language rather than sitting on top of it.

"Indians" and "The Link" set the template: mid-tempo, enormous, built on riffs that repeat until they become hypnotic rather than tiring. "Death Of Me" is the most aggressive thing here. "Remembrance" slows everything down without losing weight, and the closing "Dawn" runs eight minutes and dissolves into pure atmosphere. Between the songs sit short instrumental passages, "Connected" and "Torii" among them, that give the album the feel of a single continuous piece.

The band recorded, mixed and mastered it themselves at Studio des Milans in France with Laurentx Etxemendi, and the rawness is the point. Mario Duplantier's drumming is already fully formed, all off-kilter accents and controlled violence, and the guitar tone is drier and more physical than the polished records that followed.

This Listenable Records repress comes on transparent red vinyl, limited to 500 copies and remastered for vinyl at Conkrete Studio. Manufactured in the EU.