Gojira - Fortitude

Monday, a new week and it's time to present "Record Of The Week".

"Fortitude" is the seventh full-length release for the French metal band GOJIRA, the album was released on 30 April 2021 through Roadrunner Records. The album was recorded at the band's studio in New York City and was produced by Joe Duplantier and mixed by Andy Wallace.

GOJIRA is the main French metal export that we have today, and it is with a warm welcome to receive their new creation "Fortitude" which slips into the mailbox with a big noise and heavy crash. And after a few spins can one immediately rejoice, that the sequel to "Magma" is undoubtedly a delight where they have continued to work around their creative integrity that has always been the groundstone of their work. "Fortitude" brilliance followup and sits like a slap in the face on this first real spring day of 2021.

"Fortitude" has eleven tracks with a playtime of fifty-two minutes. The album's title "Fortitude", is to inspire people to be the best version of themselves and to be strong no matter what. The cover art, which represents "the spirit of the album", was designed and painted by Joe Duplantier. His brother Mario brought him various paintings of warriors and knights and showed him Pallas Athena, an 1898 oil-on-canvas painting by Gustav Klimt, and Knights of the Round Table. As he wanted to represent an indigenous person, it ended with his own interpretation of all these elements.

With the two first singles "Born For One Thing" and "Another World" did we get the GOJIRA which we are more familiar with, heavy riffs by Christian Andreu, tight bass licks by Jean-Michel Labadie, excellent spiral vocals by Joe Duplantier and marvelous drumming by the genius Mario Duplantier. The groovy "Amazonia", with a progressive, post-rock approach in GOJIRA style, just love the African vibe, mouth harp with clouds of smokey chants, which talks about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest (especially the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires), was released as part of a month-long fundraiser for a Brazilian indigenous rights charity curated by GOJIRA. A killer riff opens up "New Found" which is an excellent piece, same goes with "Sphinx" and "Into The Storm" which follows the more classic GOJIRA template.

That the band continues to experiment and expand their sound is something that I think is really good, shows that they want to develop and find new stones to stand on. That is something we get a lot on this album, something we need to get used to. Starting on the fourth tune "Hold On", where the tune starts off really softish with a big space, light riffs, and drums, almost chanting vocals, all in a beautiful and almost sad packaging. Until the heavy riffage starts almost two minutes in and the layout changes direction to a more angry, next to pissed off Joe, who after a while is "hold on" tight before he tears himself loose and goes berserk again. "The Trails" is a softer, mesmeric, and haunting piece that in its own beauty takes the band outside their normal comfort zone. The title tune "Fortitude" is a true curveball, with this campfire piece, heavy bass playing, light guitar, tambourine, and chanting vocals that continue on electric "The Chant", heavier with a bluesy alt-rock touch, very melodic and mesmerizing tune. The album closes up with a true bang of the "Grind", where all the leftover energy erupts in a riff Bonzai, amazing bass licks that you can headbang too until your hair falls off. The album is really excellent, technical, melodic, provocative, experimental, and full of memorable moments that are very enjoyable to listen to. I highly recommend this!

Joe Duplantier – vocals, rhythm guitar, production, arrangements, cover art

Christian Andreu – lead guitar

Jean-Michel Labadie – bass guitar

Mario Duplantier – drums

Sum: "Fortitude" shows a powerful and broad spectrum of GOJIRA

Today's tune "The Chant" is taken from "Fortitude", enjoy!



More info @

Official Gojira Web

Listen to ”Gojira - The Chant" on Spotify!

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