If you’re going to name a band after the greatest monster in cinema mythology, you better deliver. Luckily, long-running French metal outfit Gojira hasn’t built their reputation by not living up to their name. Throughout their twenty-plus-year history, they have delivered punishing groove metal that is both destructive and awe-inspiring.
Originally establishing their reputation as a highly technical death metal band, 2016’s Magma saw a seismic shift that saw them leaning into more melodic and progressive elements without losing any of their technical edge. With that album as my introduction, I was already primed for this year’s Fortitude, a sonic tour-de-force that shows what the French foursome is still so highly regarded.
By and large, I generally prefer my metal to be beautiful. I lean much more towards glacially paced, lush atmospheres of bands like Alcest, Isis, and Deafheaven than Venom or Cannibal Corpse. On paper, there was little to attract me to Gojira in the first place. But something about the way Magma mixed their heavy tech-grooves with space and melody grabbed me and refused to let me go.
That album was a high bar to clear, but Fortitude steps over it with ease, like a 300 ft tall kaiju competing in an Olympic high jump. Every track is a standout, offering both shout-along melodies and stanky grooves in spades. It’s a non-stop, no holds barred, scorched-earth riff-fest that’s as catchy as it is intense. The guitars are thick and beefy, often aiding the heavy distortion with pitch shifters and reverbs as they shift between palm muted riffs and soaring leads. The bass is downtuned and perpetually overdriven, absolutely dominating the low end. The drums are acrobatic and violent, like a three-hundred-pound pro wrestler who can still pull off moonsaults.
“Born For one Thing” kicks off the album with a bang, chugging along a violent, djenty verse that appears to reverse course from Magma, until anthemic clean vocals take over in the chorus. “Amazonia” rides a laid back one-note groove aided by throat singing and a jaw harp. “Another World” features a blistering arpeggio riff with a soaring, throat-shredding chorus, transmuting between thick palm mutes, wall-of-sound strummed chords, and an ambient closer.
This opening trio is worth the price of the disc on its own, but they’re not done. Across eleven tracks and fifty minutes, Fortitude continues to deliver. There are elements of Gospel in “Hold On” and “The Chant,” inventive effects and angular grooves in “New Found” and “Sphinx,” and full-on djent assault in “Into the Storm.” “The Trails” manages to use palm-muted guitar lines and time-shifting drums to create a ballad that is moving and delicate without losing any of the heavy-metal musculature.
The closer “Grind” brings it all together. The opening moments punch hard with off-time riffing and scraping, shifting meter into an appropriately stanky verse groove. Halfway through the track though, there’s another change, the rhythm opening up and guitars moving to ringing arpeggios and soaring lead lines. The section repeats for a few minutes, fading into ambience as the record comes to a close until there’s only an acoustic guitar repeating the electric guitar line.
The first time I listened to this record, I found myself involuntarily twisting my face into a groove-induced grimace, my head bopping against the odd rhythms that punctuate the songs. As I’ve become more familiar with it, I still find my body reacting the same way, even as I’ve identified the heart-tugging, life-affirming kernel at the core of these songs. This is an album that speaks to every part of my being: a record that can be enjoyed by my gut, my mind, and my heart at once. And at its best, isn’t that what music is supposed to achieve?
Addendum: in researching this album, I learned that it peaked at number 12 on the Billboard chart? Gojira absolutely deserves it, and I would kill to hear one of these songs on Top 40 radio.