Album of the Day

Gojira was originally named Godzilla, and the French quartet remains a monster of progressive metal. The band had just begun recording MAGMA when Joe and Mario Duplantier's mother took ill; her death from cancer left its mark on the 2016 Roadrunner collection beginning with a title to reflect the emotions boiling inside. If complexity and technical skill defined much of Gojira's earlier work, the emphasis here is on shorter songs (“Silvera,” “The Cell”), cleaner vocals and stronger grooves, resulting in one of the group's most accessible albums. A Grammy nominated set that topped the Billboard Hard Rock Album chart, MAGMA was hailed by Metallica's Kirk Hammett as “an incredible piece of art,” and we'll cue it up now to bring March Metal Month to an earth-shaking conclusion.