Live Review: Gojira – Fortitude UK Tour – Alexandra Palace, London

French metal legends Gojira recently headed over to the UK for a six date run of shows as a part of their ‘Fortitude’ European tour. We headed down to the final UK show at London’s Alexandra Palace, here’s what went down.

As Employed To Serve took to the stage, the partially filled Alexandra Palace erupted in excitement. Right off the first note from ‘Universal Chokehold’, mosh pits started opening up and it was clear that it was going to be the start of the first bit of chaos for the night. Their ‘Conquering’ heavy set went down well with the crowd – enticing lots of crowd surfers throughout – emanating in a massive reaction to the bands final song ‘Mark Of The Grave’.

Hailing from New Zealand, Alien Weaponry were next to grace the stage, and not forgetting their Kiwi heritage the band’s drummer entered the stage performing the Haka. The band’s unique Thrash Metal stylings along with the constant encouragement of crowd participation evoked a lot of movement in the crowd. While the set saw far fewer crowdsurfers than Employed To Serve before them the pits seemed to grow ever larger. Their set went down well with the London hoards, who I’m sure will be hoping for a headline run of shows from the band in the near future.

The packed out Alexandra Palace was energised and ready as the projected 180 second countdown began – with the crowd giving a little cheer when it clicked over to 69. The energy in the room reached a tipping point as the audience exploded into the first song ‘Born For One Thing’ upon the curtain drop. ‘The Heaviest Matter of the Universe’ and ‘Backbone’ quickly followed as both band and fans warmed into the chaos that was unfolding, before fan favourites ‘Stranded’ and ‘Flying Whale’ provided an extra kick of energy early on in the set.

These songs would be the first of the well curated set that celebrated the band’s seventh studio album ‘Fortitude’, whilst also looking back at some of the band’s immense back catalogue as well. One of the standout moments of the night came in the form of a drum solo from Mario Duplantier, who captivated the crowd as he commanded cheers in return.

Unfortunately, whilst the band showed some great musicianship on the Alexandra Palace stage, for a band whose sets are usually filled head to toe with flames, the show was let down by a lack of pyro – and more importantly pyro that was in time with the music. Flames seemed to go off with little to no regard to the music that was being played out, if being set off at all. While the lack of flames might just be a reflection of the times that we live in, it did leave a lot to be desired and was a let down from previous times seeing Gojira.

As the night drew to a close, the band returned to the stage for a three song encore, with ‘Silvera’, ‘New Found’, and ‘The Gift of Guilt’ sending the crowd into one final spin of chaos before they would inevitably have to head home.

With Gojira nearing their 30th year in the metal scene, their show at Alexandra Palace is a clear example as to why they’re still playing to some of the biggest metal crowds across Europe. Their musicianship is still very much on point and whilst the lack of pyro let this show down slightly, the band do still know how to command a crowd and get every last ounce of energy out of them.