Grammy Awards, once again working hard to be irrelevant

I am still trying to recover from the fact that Mastodon is not even nominated for a Grammy.

The list is not bad, with the usual suspects: Slayer, Megadeth, Ministry, Judas Priest, with (relatively) newcomers Lamb of God.

They’re not running the risk of repeating their 1989 fiasco.

But still, one has to wonder how they arrived at the conclusion that Mastodon did not deserve to even be nominated. This is bizarre. Just plain bizarre.

Gojira’s The Way of All Flesh – after a few good listens

I will say from the get go that The Way of All Flesh is different from their previous effort, From Mars to Sirius. The riffs are less melodious and catchy. The songs are more tormented and anguished. This is a good thing. Why, you ask? Because this death metal album is about death. Not the juvenile take on death à la Cannibal Corpse. No, the real death:

Your breath is now still, no warmth to your skin
Do not be afraid, there’s no way that you can stay here
You are leaving this world
All lights are fading away now
Leave behind the loved ones and all you know
Do not be afraid and let yourself go

…as the title song puts it. You also have a good helping of their more traditional environmental themes, but as other have pointed out those can be comically bad.

Randy Blythe’ guest vocal have attracted some criticisms, with reasons. I have never been a fan of his run-of-the-mill, intensity-strpped mundane vocals. I really like Lamb of God’s guitars and drums–I just can’t stand the mediocre vocals. Randy’s contribution to Adoration for None is a negative one. It is distracting. Some of the riffs in the song are real killers though: listen to the crushing riff starting at 1:05 and the atmospheric and so-Gojira follow-up. Excellent.

By now I think that my favorite songs are Oroborus, Esoteric Surgery, and Vacuity. However I know that this will change as I continue to listen to the album. It’s a rich album. One of those that you know as you listen to it again that it will seriously grow on you, and obsess you.

Metallization level: 10.

Gojira – The Way Of All Flesh streaming on myspace

Gojira’s new album, my most anticipated album of the year, is scheduled to be released on October 14. I saw them live during the tour with Machine Head, Trivium and Lamb of God and let me tell you that they may have been the opener, but they were the best act that night–closely followed by Machine Head. (Trivium wasn’t bad; we left during Lamb of God, which I had seen the year before during the Unholly Alliance tour and wasn’t impressed with.)

Anyway, back to Gojira. As reported by Blabbermouth, they’re streaming 10 of the 12 songs of their upcoming album (why only 10? Apparently, unspecified “unfortunate problems with the brand new MySpace player” prevented them to stream the whole album) on their myspace page.

If you have not yet had the chance to listen to their previous album, “From Mars to Sirius,” it is one of the best albums of the last 5 years.