Background and formation (1993–1996) At the age of seventeen, while in high school, vocalist and guitarist
Joe Duplantier formed his first band called Eclipse after discovering
heavy metal three years earlier. His brother,
Mario, started a band at the age of twelve and had already demonstrated his capabilities as a drummer. Over time, the two brothers embarked on
jam sessions after school. Joe and Mario Duplantier, aged nineteen and fourteen respectively in 1996, decided to start a
technical death metal band emphasizing melodies and recruited nineteen-year-old guitarist
Christian Andreu. According to Mario, Andreu was "a passionate [fan], like we, of
Metallica". They began practicing with guitars and drums in the Duplantiers' garage (where the group had set up a studio) in their hometown of
Ondres in southern
Landes, on the outskirts of
Bayonne. The band soon recruited bassist Alexandre Cornillon, a friend of Andreu from
Hossegor. Joe Duplantier said, "We wanted to go fast and strong. We had no plan, no pressure ... We didn't even have a [band] name".
Early years and Terra Incognita (1996–2002) In 1996, the band settled on the name Godzilla. The idea sprang from the original 1954
kaiju film
Godzilla and "the myth of the big furious atomic lizard ... It was, in our heads, a symbol of devastating power". The band first performed in Bayonne
bars Godzilla self-released a pair of demo albums (
Victim in 1996 and
Possessed in 1997), and toured
southwest France. ''|alt=The band's logo, written in bold in black and white Cornillon left the band in 1998 and was replaced by
Jean-Michel Labadie, a "young bass player very active on the
Basque scene", according to author Marie-Hélène Soenen. The band toured regularly, serving as the opening act for
Cannibal Corpse,
Edge of Sanity, and
Impaled Nazarene. Godzilla then began writing what they intended as their first full-length album, a project planned since 1996. According to Joe Duplantier,
Mike Oldfield inspired his songwriting. In 2001, Godzilla was legally compelled to change its name. They became "Gojira" , the
rōmaji spelling for the original Japanese name for Godzilla. Joe Duplantier said that after the tour with Immortal, Gojira became "a real war machine". However, Soenen wrote that record labels called them "too ambitious" for their style of music. Labels advised them to abandon death metal and sing in French; "The door was clearly closed", said Joe Duplantier. Nihil, and No Flag. over a two-year period between tours and recording. On their investment, Joe Duplantier said that "The budget is important for this [second] record, but for the next one, it will be minimal", and further noted that they could "henceforth produce" their music "from A to Z".
The Link and From Mars to Sirius (2003–2007) Writing
The Link, Gojira's second studio album, took a year.
The Link was well received. In June, Gojira played at the Furyfest (an earlier version of
Hellfest Summer Open Air) as part of a lineup of
hardcore bands. Renowned for their live performances, Gojira was developing a fan base through a 40-concert nationwide tour. The band also performed beyond
metropolitan France, including Belgium,
Switzerland, and
Bilbao. In March 2004, the band played with
Loudblast, No Return, Scarve,
the Old Dead Tree and Garwall at La Locomotive in
Montmartre. A reviewer described this Gojira concert as "timed, with millimeter precision, of a phenomenal power ... With a gigantic sound! ... the Landais cataclysm has just struck at La Locomotive". Gojira continued to promote the album and toured with the Swiss
grindcore band Nostromo. Joe Duplantier (alongside singers of Loudblast and Scarve) appeared on the 2004 April issue of
Rock Hard, which marked Gojira's first-ever magazine cover. The band released
The Link Alive, a concert
DVD from
The Link tour, in April 2004.
The Link Alive, self-produced and self-distributed, was marketed without a major distributor and was followed by a 500-copy album version. In July 2004,
Terra Incognita and
The Link had sold 7,000 and 8,000 copies respectively.
The Link era ended after a successful tour of almost two years, with significant financial difficulties. Gojira signed with the Mon Slip label (which gave them a higher financial advance), followed by a contract with French-based
Listenable Records in December 2004. during the October 2005 Sirius Tour The band entered Le Studio des Milans to compose their third album,
From Mars to Sirius, focusing on an "irreproachable sound". "Gojira wants to control all stages of creation, from composition to mixing", said Labadie. Gojira released
From Mars to Sirius, their self-produced album, in September of that year; it received positive reviews from French music critics. Pascal Bagot of
RFI wrote that "the public and critical acclaim is phenomenal". Fifteen thousand albums were shipped to French stores. Entering the
Top Albums chart in France at No. 44, it remained on the chart for three weeks. After the album's release, Gojira toured France, Belgium, and the
Netherlands. Gojira performed in
Brighton (their first
UK show) on 19 May, forging links with England's media community after a party organized by
Kerrang! and a series of summer festivals in
Germany,
England and the
Scandinavian countries. AllMusic writer Eduardo Rivadavia highlighted the album's songwriting, describing the "fluidity with which utmost heaviness and delicate melodies were made to coexist" in songs such as "Flying Whales", "World to Come", and "Where Dragons Dwell". In September (a year after its release), the album had sold over 20,000 copies in France and as many abroad. In early October, Gojira and
Hatesphere began a co-headlining tour of the UK. In November, the band performed at the European
Unholy Alliance Tour, headlined by
Slayer at Paris'
Accor Arena. The band was included in
Children of Bodom's US tour in late 2006, joining
Amon Amarth and
Sanctity as opening acts. Brandon Geist of
Revolver wrote that since the release of
From Mars to Sirius, "they have risen from virtual unknowns outside of their homeland to the single-most-buzzed-about metal band on the planet". In March 2007, Listenable Records (Prosthetic Records in the US), reissued
The Link with remastered audio and new booklet artwork in North America. The following month, the label released
The Link Alive DVD in the US. Gojira later supported
Lamb of God on their American tour with
Trivium and
Machine Head. The band made a cameo appearance in Machine Head's "
Aesthetics of Hate" music video, which was broadcast on 5 May on
MTV2's
Headbangers Ball. The band supported Trivium on the UK dates of their European tour with Sanctity and
Annihilator, and made a number of festival appearances. Gojira participated in the late-2007 Radio Rebellion Tour, featuring co-headliners
Behemoth,
Job for a Cowboy, and
Beneath the Massacre. Near the end of their over-220-concert tour to promote
From Mars to Sirius, Gojira began working on their follow-up album. The album took four months to write, with its songwriting finished in late March 2008. The album was recorded from April to June, Mader mixed the album in Los Angeles over a two-week period. In August, two months before the album was released, Gojira performed "Vacuity" live for the first time at the Rock en France Festival in
Arras as the opening act for Metallica.
The Way of All Flesh was released on 13 October 2008 in Europe on Listenable Records and the following day in North America on Prosthetic Records. It reached No. 28 on France's Top Albums chart, and No. 25 on the
Official Finnish Albums Chart. The album topped the
Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart for one week, remaining on the chart for four weeks. It reached No. 21 on the
Billboard Independent Albums chart. Rivadavia wrote that the album provided "imaginative progressive headbangers ... that were rife with technical fireworks and songwriting variety" and "a few failed experiments". Gojira supported
In Flames's European tour in October, touring North America in November and December.
The Way of All Flesh ranked fifth on
Metal Hammers list of the top 50 albums of 2008, and
LA Weekly listed it as one of the year's top 10 metal albums. In late January 2009, Gojira began a headlining tour of France, the UK, and
Ireland to promote the album. On 17 March, the band's first North American headlining tour was announced; their opening bands were
the Chariot and
Car Bomb. In June, Gojira followed
Soulfly on the main stage at the Hellfest Summer Open Air and performed to more than 20,000 people. They appeared for the fourth time at
Belgium's July
Dour Festival and
Les Eurockéennes de Belfort.
Terra Incognita was re-released with bonus tracks on 24 August in Europe and on 15 October in North America. Gojira accompanied Metallica on their tour of the US and Canada from 14 September to 12 October, performing before Lamb of God. Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe began to join Gojira on "Backbone" at concerts when the bands appeared together. The tour included headline dates on off days, supported by
Burst and
Zoroaster. As their popularity spread to America's metal scene, a
Blabbermouth.net poster said that the band "has become one of metal's most acclaimed and admired acts". Calling Festival in
Norway, 2011 The band's break ended earlier than expected after Gojira was announced as the opening act of Metallica's European and
Russian tour in April 2010. In July of that year, they were included in the lineup of the rock-oriented
Vieilles Charrues Festival in
Brittany. Playing for an audience largely unaccustomed to metal music, Gojira's "delicate mission" was to close Saturday evening on the Glenmor stage. Described in an article in
Le Télégramme as "more powerful" than
Motörhead's concert in 2008 on the same stage, the show began with "Lizard Skin" to an estimated crowd of 40,000 to 50,000; twenty minutes later, between 4,000 and 5,000 people remained. According to
Le Télégramme, "The show had a rare sonic power ... so brutal that the band lost 90 percent of its attendance along the way". Undaunted, they continued to perform "as if their lives depended on it" with a drum solo of "breathtaking mastery". Since the Gojira show, metal has been slowly excluded from the Vieilles Charrues Festival. In August, they headlined the Rock Altitude Festival in Switzerland. The band continued to promote
The Way of All Flesh into 2010, including the European
Wacken Open Air,
Bloodstock Open Air, and
Brutal Assault festivals. Gojira had made substantial progress on their fifth album by March 2011, saying that they had written almost half of it; according to Joe Duplantier "These songs are original and a good reflection of what we are today". The band was relatively quiet during the year, focusing on new material and playing a handful of concerts in June and July, including at the
Sonisphere Festival in
Greece and France. The band became
free agents during the summer of 2011, after their contract with Prosthetic Records expired. Admired by
Monte Conner, Gojira was acquired by
Roadrunner Records on 9 November 2011. With their new recording contract, the band entered Spin Studios in
New York City in November to record their next album.
''L'Enfant Sauvage'' (2012–2015) Gojira's fifth album, ''
L'Enfant Sauvage'', was co-produced by Josh Wilbur and Joe Duplantier. to find "the ultimate sound" on which they had been working since their beginning. , France, in 2012 In March 2012,
Devin Townsend and
Meshuggah's
Fredrik Thordendal joined Gojira for the collaboration track "Of Blood And Salt" (intended to appear on the unreleased Sea Shepherd EP) at the
Soundwave Festival in
Australia. With
Volcom Entertainment, a limited-edition
7" single containing "Bleeding" and "End Of Time"—originally on Godzilla's 1997
Possessed demo—was released in
12" vinyl packaging in North America and Europe. Following an Australian tour with Mastodon and
Kvelertak, Gojira began a national tour supporting the album. After many tours with Metallica, the band was invited to open a series of concerts on the
European Black Album Tour (including the
Stade de France, the country's largest stadium, on 12 May 2012). setting a stadium volume record. The band shared two French dates with Slayer headlining: 27 May in
Toulouse and 29 May in
Clermont-Ferrand.
Mascot Records released a live DVD/
Blu-ray,
The Flesh Alive, on 4 June in Europe. Metal Festival in Denmark Gojira released ''L'Enfant Sauvage
in June 2012 on Roadrunner Records for worldwide distribution. selling 11,000 copies in the US in its first week. L'Enfant Sauvage
charted 104 places higher in its first week than The Way of All Flesh
did. It peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard
Tastemaker Albums chart, No. 13 on the US Top Rock Albums chart, and No. 6 on the Billboard
Hard Rock Albums chart. The album reached the top 40 in six European countries. In Flanders and Wallonia it charted for 10 and 14 weeks, respectively. Terrorizers Rob Sayce said that the album charted "without making a single concession to accessibility". Dom Lawson of The Guardian gave the album the maximum rating of five stars, and Stephen Hill of Metal Hammer'' called the album "the bridge between Gojira's past and future".
The Flesh Alive DVD was released in the US on 31 July, where Mario Duplantier and his brother swapped instruments. Gojira was scheduled to tour North America with Lamb of God and
Dethklok, but the tour was postponed due to the
incarceration of Randy Blythe in the
Czech Republic; the tour was postponed until October. However, despite instabilities, the band continued to tour North America In August 2012, at the
Heavy Montréal Festival, Labadie announced the European tour until the end of 2012 and a US and Canadian tour in 2013. By this time, Joe Duplantier had lived in New York for a year; his brother, Labadie, and Andreu remained in southwestern France. Labadie said, "We communicate differently, because of the time difference, and it is not really easy, but that is okay because he is truly happy to live in the States ... he is passionate about the United States; his mother is American". On 15 December, Gojira headlined the Indian Metal Festival in
Bangalore; "the whole front row was crying", said Joe Duplantier. Their musicianship and live performances had earned them the nickname "Gojiramazing" by fans in 2012. festival In January and February 2013, Gojira, the
Devin Townsend Project and
the Atlas Moth toured North America. In March, the band played a handful of UK concerts supporting
Ghost on the
Jägermeister Music Tour. In the middle of the month, Gojira headlined Norway's
Trondheim Metal Fest. ''L'Enfant Sauvage
was nominated for Album Of The Year at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles on 2 May 2013. Gojira received the Metal Hammer
Golden Gods Award for Best Live Band at The O2 on 17 June 2013 in London. The tour continued, and the band appeared at the Hellfest Summer Open Air, the Wacken Open Air, and the Bloodstock Open Air. Gojira made its first Israeli appearance on 15 August 2013 at Reading 3 in Tel Aviv, a "packed venue", according to Terrorizer''s Avi Pitchon, whose security barriers were bent by the crowd. The band performed at
Austin's November
Fun Fun Fun Fest, followed by a North American tour with 4Arm and Slayer. Gojira released
Les Enfants Sauvages in March 2014, a live-CD/DVD and picture book documenting the band's more than 150 concerts on three continents in support of ''L'Enfant Sauvage''. The DVD includes a March 2013
Jägermeister Music Tour concert at London's
Brixton Academy which was recorded by 14 cameras. In an interview that month at Australia's Soundwave Festival, Mario Duplantier said that the band was working on a new album. Gojira supported Mastodon and Kvelertak on a string of North American dates in April and May. The band continued successfully touring in support of the album, further consolidating their discography and launching them "into a new realm of success", wrote Graham Hartmann of
Loudwire. The band played throughout the United States and Europe, including
Rock on the Range,
Resurrection Fest, Garorock Festival in
Marmande (for the third time) and the
Graspop Metal Meeting. Gojira continued on the festival circuit, headlining the Sylak Open Air Festival on 9 August 2014 in France and the
Vagos Open Air Festival the following day in
Lisbon. Mastodon, Gojira and Kvelertak reunited for another US tour in October and November 2014. Joe Duplantier began work on a recording studio in
Ridgewood, Queens in November, and Mario moved to New York.
Magma (2015–2019) Joe and Mario Duplantier finished building Silver Cord Studio, Joe's New York recording studio, in early April 2015.
Audio files were created sporadically since late 2013 "on the computer in the tour bus", said Mario Duplantier; the new songs were a change in style for the band, as Joe experimented with clean vocals. The brothers began recording
Magma, Gojira's sixth album, at Silver Cord Studio on 6 April. Ten days into recording, however, recording was suspended when they learned that their mother was ill and flew back to France. On 5 July 2015, Patricia Rosa Duplantier died of cancer; and was billed beneath
Korn at the Rock Off Festival in
Istanbul on 1 August. On 28 August, Mario Duplantier announced before Gojira's concert in
Dublin that recording had resumed and was almost completed. From mid-September to mid-October, their tour visited
Canada,
Mexico,
Argentina, and the Santiago Gets Louder Festival in
Chile. Gojira went to
Japan as the supporting act for Slayer in
Osaka and
Tokyo in October 2015, followed by a performance at the
Loud Park Festival at
Saitama Super Arena before returning to Israel shortly afterwards.
Rolling Stone included the band's forthcoming release in their list of "25 Most Anticipated Metal Albums of 2016". In May 2016, Joe Duplantier announced the itinerary (in larger venues) in France,
Italy,
Poland, Switzerland, Belgium and the UK for the tour supporting the upcoming album. The band was included in the live lineup of the 13 June
Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards at the
Eventim Apollo in London. They made their first world television appearance as musical guests of the day on
Le Petit Journal three days later, performing an excerpt from "Silvera" in prime time on
Canal+ in France.
Magma, Gojira's self-produced album, The album debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the
Billboard Top Rock Albums chart and No. 6 on the Tastemaker Albums chart. The album debuted (and peaked) at No. 17 on the
Billboard Canadian Albums Chart, and debuted at No. 11 on Australia's
Australian Albums Chart.
Magma reached the top 40 in twelve European countries and the top 10 in Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Norway and France. The album had a generally-favorable critical reception, scoring a 79 on Metacritic. Gojira departed from its
tech-death in Europe and at a number of summer music festivals, followed by a 27-date headlining tour of North America with
Tesseract as the opening act from mid-July through October 2016. By this time, Gojira had made seventeen US tours. A November 2016
Metal Hammer article said that Gojira had "emerged as one of the most important metal outfits on the planet",
Kirk Hammett later called
Magma "an incredible piece of art". In January 2017, Gojira began a French tour with nine consecutive sold-out concerts. Within eight months of its release,
Magma had sold 400,000 copies worldwide. On 12 February 2017, the band was nominated for two Grammy Awards;
Magma was nominated for
Best Rock Album and its second single, "Silvera", was nominated for
Best Metal Performance at the
59th Annual Grammy Awards at the
Staples Center in
Los Angeles. At that time, Gojira was labeled a "French-American metal band" by the
Los Angeles Times. On 6 May 2017, the band performed along with
Opeth, Mastodon,
Eagles of Death Metal, the Devin Townsend Project, and
Russian Circles at
Philadelphia's
Electric Factory.
Magma received the Best Album award at the
Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards on 12 June 2017. Gojira began a short run of US co-headlining dates with Opeth, and supported
Metallica's US
WorldWired Tour that summer with
Avenged Sevenfold and
Volbeat. They headlined the Main Stage 2 at
Download Festival, before
Linkin Park on the Main Stage 1, in Paris on 9 June and Spain on 22 June. On 15 July, Gojira had top billing at the
Dynamo Metal Fest in
Eindhoven. The band played a US headlining tour during the fall;
Converge,
Code Orange,
Pallbearer,
Oni, and
Torche supported them on selected dates with festival appearances. In 2017, Mario Duplantier returned to France due to
visa-related technical reasons and to see his family, saying that Gojira "is a bit in Ondres, a little bit in Brooklyn, a bit in Bassussarry ... Between the Landes, the United States, and the Basque Country". In early August 2018, Gojira played to the largest crowd of their career at
Pol'and'Rock Festival in
Kostrzyn nad Odrą,
Poland. More than 400,000 people attended the festival. Nick John, who managed Gojira, Mastodon and Slayer, died of cancer on 8 September; John had managed Gojira since 2012. On 16 January 2019, Gojira released its Pol'and'Rock Festival 2018 set on YouTube. That summer, they supported Slipknot on their US Knotfest Roadshow tour;
Behemoth and Volbeat were also supporting acts. Gojira headlined the first day of the Hellfest Summer Open Air, one of Europe's largest metal festivals, on 21 June. On 2 November, they supported Deftones during their Dia De Los Deftones Festival with
Chvrches,
Youth Code,
JPEGMafia and
Brutus at
San Diego's
Petco Park.
Fortitude (2020–present) In May 2020, Gojira streamed
Live At Red Rocks on YouTube, their 2017 concert at
Red Rocks Amphitheatre in
Morrison, Colorado, to celebrate their thousandth performance. The band released "Another World", their first single in four years, on 5 August; it was their first
Billboard-charting single. It peaked at No. 5 on the
Hard Rock Digital Song Sales and No. 12 on the
Hot Hard Rock Songs charts. Their performance at Hellfest 2019 was made available for streaming on YouTube in November 2020. Gojira announced their seventh studio album,
Fortitude, on 17 February 2021. Production had begun in early 2018 at Silver Cord Studio, and its original June 2020 release date had been postponed to September of that year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortitude was called "one of 2021's most heavily anticipated metal releases". Gojira's 2021 single, "Amazonia", was released as part of a month-long fundraiser by the band for a
Brazilian indigenous rights initiative. It peaked at No. 17 on the
Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs charts, and the band also placed the single "Born for One Thing" at No. 18. Sonically, the album contained an array of genres, tempos, and
socially conscious songs, as they continued venturing into new territory while maintaining the band's trademark sound. and debuted at No. 12 on the
Billboard 200. It topped the
Billboard Top Rock Albums and Hard Rock Albums charts. The album topped the
Billboard Top Album Sales and
Top Current Albums Sales charts with 27,372
album-equivalent units; 24,104 were
album sales, making it the bestselling album in its opening week in the United States.
Fortitude exceeded
Magma chart positions and sales. It reached No. 3 on the Australian Albums Chart and No. 8 on the
German Albums Chart. Upon release, the album received critical praise reviews from music critics of
The Guardian,
Rolling Stone,
Kerrang!,
Metal Hammer, and
Revolver. In mid-May 2021, "New Found" peaked at No. 24 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs charts; during the 2022 Fortitude Tour Their headlining US tour commenced on 24 September. On 1 November, Lamb of God's Randy Blythe made a guest appearance at Gojira's concert in his hometown of
Richmond, Virginia, which marked the first time they had performed "Adoration for None" live together. Gojira announced a UK and European headline tour from mid-January to mid-March 2022, with performances at the
Tauron Arena Kraków,
Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, and
Cardiff International Arena, among other locations. The band also announced a three-date French arena tour, including the
Accor Arena. It marked Gojira's first-ever headline
arena shows in Europe and the UK. However, the tour was postponed to July 2022 and February 2023 due to Covid-19-related restrictions. "Amazonia" received a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the
2022 Grammy Awards. Andreu left Gojira on the remaining eight dates of their 2022 North American tour with Deftones to be present with his newborn child. They recruited Aldrick Guadagnino from the French band Klone to replace him temporarily from 18 to 28 May. On 19 June, Gojira headlined the third day of Hellfest Summer Open Air, performing to a crowd of 60,000. The band then went on a 4-date South America tour, including performances at the
Movistar Arena and the
Luna Park arena. On 26 July 2024, Gojira performed at the
2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in
Paris; their exhibition, held at the
Conciergerie, In November, "Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)" was unveiled as a nominee for the Best Metal Performance at the
2025 Grammy Awards, their third nomination in the category, which they ultimately won. In February 2026, the band was announced as part of the lineup for the
Louder Than Life music festival in
Louisville, scheduled to take place in September. ==Musical style and development==