French extreme metal merchants Gojira are at the very forefront of new millennial metal. The band’s extremely low tunings, percussive guitar work, and complex polyrhythms, coupled with lyrics centered around ecology and human decimation of the planet have set them apart from their peers.

Formed in 1996 and known as Godzilla for their first five years of existence, Gojira were forced to change to the original Japanese spelling of their moniker after the threat of a trademark infringement suit. The band have produced five of the most important albums in all of metal over the last 15 years. Their most recent being the crucially lauded 2012 masterpiece L’Enfant Sauvage. This week’s Massive Metal Monday track is from that album. Here is Gojira with the official video for “Explosia.”

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When I was growing up in rural Indiana in the early ’80s, there was very limited access to heavy music. These were the days before MTV blew up with the whole hair metal, Headbangers Ball phenomenon. But on Sunday nights, there was a two-hour radio show that came from WOXY, just across the state line in Oxford, Ohio (home of Miami University of Ohio). It was called Massive Metal for the Masses and I would wait all week for it to air. It was through this show that I was introduced to bands like Venom, Bathory, WASP, Michael Schenker Group, Slayer, and countless others. This Monday weekly column is my tip of the hat to that show. I call it Massive Metal Monday. Every week, I will pay tribute to defining moments by the artists that laid the groundwork for heavy metal to become the worldwide cultural bond for all of us metal heads.