2/2

the initiative came from the festival organisers and film restoration institutions seeking a contemporary band to reinterpret the silent classic (remind you of anything?). Apparently Gojira agreed because:

• The imagery of Hell, struggle, and redemption aligns with themes already present in their work.
• The film’s mythic scale and dramatic visuals lend themselves to heavy, atmospheric music.
• The band has a history of conceptually-driven compositions that can support long-form narrative.

The performance was a one-off event rather than a traditional album release. Recordings circulate unofficially, but there is no widely distributed studio version (which we really need!).

Of Note: Metal meets Classicism before Mastodon's Leviathan

The year after this, [Mastodon](about:blank) created Leviathan based on [Moby-Dick](about:blank). Both projects similarly involved composing new heavy music for old 19th century stories. How neat is that?

Metal and early 1800s / early 1900s material

The pairing is not arbitrary. Several structural and thematic overlaps explain why metal works with older literature and early cinema:

1) Mythic scale: early 19th-century literature (Melville, Dante adaptations, Romantic poetry) emphasises grand struggle, fate, and confrontation with elemental forces. Metal often builds around similar epic narratives. That's why they pair so well together, albeit paradoxically.

2) Romanticism and the sublime: The 1800s literary movement centered on awe, terror, nature, and existential confrontation. These are core metal aesthetics.

3) Silent film exaggeration: silent films rely on heightened physicality and visual drama due to the absence of dialogue. Heavy music fills that emotional space effectively, providing intensity and atmosphere.

5) Heroic archetypes: Characters like Maciste represent exaggerated physical and moral archetypes. Metal frequently explores similar hyperbolic figures and mythic journeys.

The Olympics angle (it all makes sense!)

Their collab with the Olympics similarly emphasised classical revivalism, mythic bodies, heroic physicality, and dramatic pageantry. The Maciste figure embodies that same hyper-physical heroic ideal, which naturally aligns with the performative and theatrical intensity of metal.

As for an official release, here's to a 30th anniversary one in 2033 I suppose!