After a short detour, we were back at the Helvíti stage again, and this time the visiting band was one that should know the festival, as they had been here before.
This didn’t seem to be the case for Joe Duplantier however, who, despite stating that he was extremely happy to be back, couldn’t for the life of him remember when the band had been here the last time.
Oh, did I mention that the band was Gojira? With this, I suspect many of our readers have already guessed, quite correctly, that Gojira’s last visit to Copenhell was back in 2012.

Well, if the last visit hadn’t been as memorable to the band as one could have hoped, maybe this was the time to set things straight then?
Gojira was certainly up for it. They came on strong at 19:00, and from there on out, they were steadily pumping their special brand of metal out to a wild Copenhell audience. The fact that Joe Duplantier didn’t spend much time talking between songs only made the onslaught feel that more relentless. They did of course have an extremely aggressive and well-mixed sound to back them up – the vocals could have been a bit higher at first, but this little wrinkle was quickly evened out.
So, the music and the sound was greatly kicking our asses, but what about the performance?
Well, Gojira went with a very scraped down stage setup, only bringing the very essentials to help them along, but as it turned out, nothing more was needed. You see, their personal performance was nothing short of wild! Especially drummer Mario Duplantier should be given kudos here, he was a complete animal!

As had been the case at their last visit, Copenhell went absolutely insane for the Frenchmen’s musical delivery.
It was one of the largest crowd gatherings so far, and quite possibly also the liveliest one. There was the traditional moshpit, which was far-reaching and safely violent, and where people weren’t busy bumping into each other, long hair was swung with great vigour and shouts of appreciation could be heard near and far.
I think you understand what I’m getting at here – Copenhell’s crowd loved Gojira!

For my own part, I was entertained, no doubt about that, but Gojira still hasn’t been able to completely sell themselves to me. It wasn’t for lack of trying, mind you! No, we simply haven’t hit that click yet.
Even so, I fully recognise and acknowledge the band’s influence and capability – now, let’s just see if they remember us till next time!

Setlist:

Ocean Planet
The Axe
The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe
Backbone
Love (Remembrance snippet)
L’Enfant Sauvage
Toxic Garbage Island
Wisdom Comes
Flying Whales
Oroborus
Vacuity
Solo (Mario Duplantier)
Where Dragons Dwell