45 Seconds from Awesome
We have a good dose of heavy for you this episode, including the highly anticipated new album from Gojira. Unlike most times when promo materials say “highly anticipated”, I think it is accurate in this case. We round out the show with some Progressive Thrash and good ol’ groovy Death Metal.
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And remember – Be responsible. Stay healthy. Stay Metal.
Reviews:
Gojira – Fortitude (Roadrunner)
Paranorm – Empyrean (Redefining Darkness)
Celestial Sanctuary – Soul Diminished (Redefining Darkness)
Gojira – Fortitude
Paranorm – Empyrean
Celestial Sanctuary – Soul Diminished
The Sideshow Podcast 
For Gojira’s latest release, Fortitude, I agree with most of what you guys said. They are not going to make another album like The Way Of Al Flesh, and I agree with Nick that L’Enfant Sauvage is my least favorite of theirs. But I think I’m liking Fortitude slightly more than you guys. I like the diversity of the songs, with a mix of old style Gojira with the new directions. Every time the chorus hits on “Into The Storm”, I get pumped. It would be awesome to hear that song live. My only nit pick about Fortitude is that it seems like a collection of songs rather than a cohesive album. For example, the song “Another World” doesn’t fit right after “Amazonia”, even if I like both songs. The album as a whole doesn’t have as consistent of a feel as previous efforts. But overall I still might give it a 5.
It’s awesome that you reviewed Paranorm. When I recommended that you listen to their album Empyrean, I did in fact think you’d comment on the vocals and the production. And I can’t argue about those. But I also thought you’d mention that the vocals and production are a little to much like Black Metal for you. So as you said, this album is all about the guitar. And the guitars on this album are so awesome that none of the other stuff matters to me. Isn’t metal all about the guitars? Isn’t the heavily distorted sound of an electric guitar what makes metal metal? You can have metal that is fast or slow, with clean vocals or death growls (or no vocals at all), and it’s still metal. But take away the heavily distorted guitars and it’s not metal anymore.
Brian: “I messed up.”
Nick: “I’m still rolling, so I’ll just edit that part out.”
No you won’t. And you didn’t. And it’s fine. I wouldn’t have edited it out either. That’s too much work.