Gojira Live In Australia!

New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ RoadRunner Records) Gojira recently performed at Billboard in Melbourne, Australia with Mastodon and Kvelertak as part of the Sidewave series of gigs put on by the Soundwave Festival. Photographer John Raptis was there, and captured some killer images of the band's set, despite a few challenges posed by their blazing light show.

As he writes, "Photographically, they were hard to shoot. The ever-present white floodlights from behind made for an overwhelmingly bright lit stage and a lot of my shots failed me tonight." But by the end of their set, he was a newly minted Gojira fan. He writes, "I can safely say, all that I knew about these guys was that they hail from France and they favour a more technical brand of Metal that some have labelled 'art-metal'. Take from that what you will. Safe to say, I wasn't expecting much and I was gonna do my job and photograph them as had been instructed and that would be pretty much it. From the minute they took to the stage, I was, how they say in the classics… blown away! They sounded phenomenal and so overwhelmingly powerful, intricate and mechanical in their brutality and melody! A perfect marriage of Metal and technical style. I was too busy making mental notes of 'dude, go home and listen to their entire fucking discography 'cos these guys are something to behold'. I loved them. Everything about them just wrapped itself in the sinews of my mind. This is a band I will enjoy discovering for the first time. Now I know what the fuss is about!"

Check out his shots of all three bands at this link: https://goo.gl/oYRuV

Gojira's fifth studio album, their debut for Roadrunner Records, will be out later this year.