![]() ![]() Of course, listeners just coming to the party with Fortitude should understand that Gojira have long bucked purist notions of what metal is “supposed” to sound like. His reverence for life resounds so persistently throughout the band’s body of work that the music verges on a kind of primal rapture: an almost devotional expression of soul-searching set ablaze within a flaming metallic roar. Thus, in Gojira’s hands, the ultimate point of death metal is to affirm life, which comes across more than ever on their seventh studio album Fortitude, a rallying cry for collective resilience in the face of a worldwide crisis that was written and recorded, it turns out, before the pandemic.ĭuplantier has said that he would have pursued environmental activism as a career were it not for his life path solidifying around music. Merge eco-consciousness with existential rumination and the train of thought naturally leads to the death of the biosphere itself, with the music prodding listeners to consider the prospect and implications of extinction-not just for us, but for other lifeforms as well. ![]() ![]() ![]() That’s precisely what you would eventually want from a style of music where dying is often the primary focus. Over the last two decades, frontman/lyricist Joe Duplantier has also used the band’s songs as sounding boards to raise questions about the meaning that mortality gives life. However, they cover many shades of feeling, including not just the anger and righteous indignation one would expect but also introspection and sorrow as well. Gojira albums have essentially stuck to that same topical basis ever since. By Terra Incognita, though, the band had carved out their niche by hinging their music around concerns about the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Instead, they introduced themselves to the metal underground via a series of four EP-length demos that hewed to a derivative death metal format, complete with stock song titles like “Rigor Mortis” and “Brutal Abortion”. Even when the French quartet were still adhering to a traditional death metal template by emulating the likes of Morbid Angel and Death, it was abundantly clear that Gojira had no interest in limiting the emotions they wanted their music to convey.Ĭrucially, though Gojira formed (under the name Godzilla) in 1996, they didn’t release their debut album Terra Incognita until 2001. Whether or not the majority of death metal artists have chosen to take advantage of that range, no one can ever accuse Gojira of failing to do their part. If compassion seems like an ill-fitting motivation for a death metal band, it’s important to remember that, over the past 30-plus years, the genre has proven to be a surprisingly effective vehicle for as wide a range of subjects as the imagination will allow. ![]()
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January 2023
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