Joe and Mario Duplantier were working on Gojira’s seventh album, Fortitude, in the autumn of 2019, when the news hit the headlines: the Amazon was on fire. Not just a small, natural fire, but acres set ablaze by land-grabbing farmers and loggers, killing wildlife and endangering tribes across Brazil and other South American countries. Most people are so numb to the 24-hour news cycle that they’d see the story and move on. Not the Duplantier brothers.On that same day, sick to their stomachs, they took to their instruments and played with white-hot rage. The result was recent single Amazonia, a groove metal anthem driven by a jaw harp, augmented by throat singing and inspired by the tribal percussive barrage of Roots-era Sepultura. ‘The greatest miracle is burning to the ground!’ cries Joe.But it wasn’t enough to write a song about the Amazon crisis; they wanted to do something about it, too. Frontman Joe made phone call aft
and not doing themselves simultaneously. Starting at conception, ‘
Born For One Thing‘ is an existential lamenting of how life must end; that what’s given must be returned. Neck-sliding back and forth harmonic rings birth it, dropping into a hardened and groovy prog-chug verse that’s pure
Gojira, before the ghostly melodic atmosphere of its sublime chorus cracks through.
Gojira employs many riff and rhythmic tropes, but they always pull it off well: It just hits differently when it comes from them. That’s this song in a nutshell. The bruising metal instrumentals, repeating melodic motif, and
Joe’s Duplantier wet vocal mixing all create a powerful contrast. And my god, the late-song breakdown with hair-raising pinches is one hell of a double-down prior to further panicked riffs ushering in an
Words: Paul Travers
Gojira never seemed like a band built for the mainstream. A cult act, yes, but in this century at least perhaps only Mastodon before them have taken a strand of metal so obviously built for the underground and dragged it kicking and screaming into the sunlight. It’s a long while since Gojira could legitimately be called a death metal band, but they’ve retained an uncompromising sense of self that has not always been the most accessible. Dense, complex and oblique, they’ve nevertheless hammered their way to the forefront of modern metal relying on quality and sheer bloody-mindedness.
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28 · 04 · 2021
An odd look will spread over the features of any heavy music fan the moment you mention the name Gojira. Their eyes will glaze over as they enter a trancelike state, foaming at the mouth and shaking as they mutter about how they saw them blow Slayer off the stage in ‘13, or fold Ghost like laundry back on the ‘Infestissumam’ tour, or bludgeon Mastodon to death at Bloodstock 2016.
There is a unanimous agreement across the brutalisphere that France’s premier metal band effectively ran the table on the 2010s, leapfrogging their rivals to become the most exciting, influential and groundbreaking act in heavy metal. Though they had been cult favourites since their inception as a death metal band at the turn of the millennium, it was only on their most recent two records (2012’s
Gojira Share New Track The Chant Ahead Of Fortitude Release Tuesday, 27 April 2021
Gojira have unveiled a new song, The Chant.
The track finds the French metal giants exploring a different direction, trading their pummelling riffs for a more slow-burning, melodic offering with a looping vocal chant.
It s the fifth single to be shared from the band s imminent seventh studio album, Fortitude , due out this Friday (April 30) through Roadrunner Records. Press play below and check out the accompanying video which hits YouTube on the record s release day.