While metalheads are frothing over the new Mastodon record released last week (which I’m still digesting – thoughts coming soon), the pre-release hype and jittery anticipation surrounding Blood Mountain (2006) unfairly blinded another notable long-player released last month on Prosthetic Records, Gojira’s From Mars to Sirius (2006). I happened to stumble upon this record while numbingly surfing eMusic last week, and it was actually the striking cover art that initially drew my attention. A short disclaimer before critiquing: over the years I’ve grown incredibly fussy and picky about my metal, thus I purchase maybe a dozen metal records a year. I’m nowhere near an authority but I certainly know what I like, and this previously unheard band managed to pique my excitement in all the right spots.

Here’s what I found out: Gojira (Japanese for – you guessed it – “Godzilla”) are a four-piece originating from Bayonne, France and have been bludgeoning eardrums for onwards of ten years now. The players are brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier (guitar/vocals and drums, respectively), guitarist Christian Andreu, and bassist Jean-Michel Labadie. From Mars to Sirius is their third full-length (and first domestically) and continues their thread of punishing, environmentally-conscious records with some impressive home-studio production. Which would mean naught to me were it not for a few significant Good Things that caught my attention.

To begin with, as much as I love crazed, cracked-out hyper-metal, there are times when I just want to be repetitively pounded with huge, oceanic riffs, and Gojira delivers in spades. To wit: the vocals remind me of Max Cavalera’s early-Sepultura material. The guitar tone is similar to Justin Broderick’s on Godflesh’s Hymns (2001), with a metallic, slightly under-distorted warmth. There’s a song about dragons. And most impressively, the guys have no qualms about playing the same slow, lumbering riff for upwards of four minutes to prove their point. All Good Things; only album-closer “Global Warming” falters, but by then, the thirst for uncompromising heaviness has been satiated.

Opener “Ocean Planet” does everything right, beginning with a few seconds of a haunting whale song before detonating into a monstrous riff of open-string chords and pinch harmonics. At 1:57, a brusque “Go!” signals a complex stop-start drill that reveals the band’s more mathematical tendencies. At 3:05 is a gutsy descent into a chunky, one-note declaration that few bands would have the stones to attempt, then the skies open up for a glorious progression that is, daresay, quite beautiful. The track closes with a thumping riff that incorporates an abrasive pick scratch into the equation. My heart is stolen – bravo, fellas.

“Ocean Planet” – Gojira 5:32 (From Mars to Sirius, Prosthetic 2006)

“In the Wilderness” is one of the epic-length tracks on the record and features some fine kit work from drummer Duplantier, whose double-kick timing is precise enough to set a watch to. The opening riff is the sonic equivalent of a furious sea storm north of the Arctic Circle, the machine-gun snare rolls battering the raw skin like stinging ice pellets. Another riff utilizing that cool-as-shit pick scratch technique enters at 3:02, and a minute later all that remains of the storm is a frozen wind. The song concludes with some dual-harmonizing octave runs that expand across the horizon during the extended fade-out.

“In the Wilderness” – Gojira 7:47 (From Mars to Sirius, Prosthetic 2006)

This is one of those records that fainly hints at an indication that it will get better over time, and I’d be surprised if From Mars to Sirius doesn’t make my top list for the year.