Fortitude (album)

The creative process of Gojira's seventh album began sparingly in late 2017.[1] Gojira intended to write a "groovy, aerated album" with a strong theme and focused on sharing with the audience, an album where two energies coexist, "both very masculine and feminine".[2] The album was inspired as an encouragement to self-reinforcement, "to show courage to face up the world, to face tomorrow's problems".[1]

Having had sustained requests to tour worldwide in support of Magma, beyond the initial cycle, the band declined in order to focus on writing a new album.[1] The album's songwriting officially started in early 2018 at New York's Silver Cord Studio, which would become "the cocoon for a two-year creative odyssey".[3] However, it was interrupted by a tour in Europe, and the writing finished after the 2019 Knotfest Roadshow tour throughout the United States and Canada.[1] The dynamics tended to go towards an organic sound.[4] They used two different guitar amp heads, depending on the songs, and without post-production treatment for a raw result.[4] Mario Duplantier recorded eleven drum tracks in eight days in one or two takes each.[5] Joe Duplantier produced the album,[6] and the band recorded it at Silver Cord Studio in late 2019.[5][1]

By January 2020, the vocal recordings were finished, and the album was prepared for the mixing stage scheduled to begin on March 10.[7] Andy Wallace mixed three songs before the first COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed,[8] while the album was slated for a June 2020 release.[3][1] Meanwhile, Joe Duplantier, a New York State resident, was visiting his father in southwest France, which complicated the mixing process.[9] Gojira was then unable to rejoin Wallace in Florida due to the sanitary situation. Then Joe Duplantier spent several months in a cabin in the Landes forest without listening to the new tracks and forsook his cell phone and computer. Finally, in July, the band returned to the mixing process over the internet and phone with Wallace. However, he would prefer to be left alone in the studio, without assistants, being vulnerable to coronavirus infection due to his age, saying he was "infinitely upset not to be with the band".[10] Wallace retained the integrity of the spontaneity of Gojira's compositions while bringing "warmth" to the instrumentation.[4] The album's release date was then pushed to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then failed afterward, and a further postponement was decided upon.[3][1]

On 5 August 2020, the band released a new single called "Another World", their first single in four years.[11]

On 17 February 2021, Gojira announced Fortitude and its release date for 30 April 2021 via Roadrunner Records.[12][3] On the same day, the band released an official video for its lead single, "Born for One Thing".[13] Fortitude marked the longest gap between two studio albums in the band's career.[14]

On Fortitude, Gojira took a different lyrical approach than the one explored on their previous album, Magma. The latter was heavily influenced by the death of Joe and Mario Duplantier's mother and had "a lot of pain and grief attached to it", Joe Duplantier said. This time, the band "had the desire to fill the album with more joy, even if it doesn't come across as joyful music".[15] The album would be emphasized by "more power, and more positivity about life in general."[16] Duplantier said of his state of mind while writing the lyrics: "In an uncertain world, chaotic, I choose optimism by default."[4]

Mario Duplantier mentioned a slower composition process than before due to musical tastes becoming more diversified over the years.[2] The goal was to focus the music on the "big guitar riff" rather than on the performance, with a band cohesion emphasizing this point.[2][17] While retaining their signature style, Gojira extended their range to a "traditional dimension" and started sliding their sound towards the 1970s and 1980s major chords–progressions of "classic bands", embracing melodies and guitar solos.[18][16] Mario Duplantier "took a back seat to serve the riff" on Fortitude, although he kept the polyrhythmic drumming on some songs.[2][19] On Fortitude, the band put forward the use of backing vocals and choirs, that were already present on the previous albums but "buried" in the mix.[4]

Combining the direct approach of The Way of All Flesh mingled with the atmospheric arrangements of Magma, the structure of the songs provided the album an immediacy and more accessibility while offering a return to heaviness.[20] "Amazonia", which talks about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest (specially the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires), was released as part of a month-long fundraiser for a Brazilian indigenous rights charity curated by Gojira.[21][22] The lyrics to "Amazonia" chronicles the reckless deforestation that has accelerated in Brazil under the reign of Jair Bolsonaro,[23] shown in the lines, "The greatest miracle is burning to the ground".[4][24] Gojira launched the charity auction on the Propeller platform through a call for solidarity from metal bands such as Metallica, Tool, Slayer, Slash, Sepultura, Deftones, Lamb of God, among others.[21][25] The fundraiser quadrupled its initial goal of $75,000 and raised over $300,000.[25] A part of the album is a tribute to indigenous communities.[26] The song "Another World" was described as a visionary apocalyptic piece.[24]

Fortitude has been described as a combination of progressive metal[27][28] with a technical approach,[29] groove metal,[20][30] post-metal,[31][32] death metal,[33] alternative metal,[31] incorporating progressive rock,[34] stoner rock,[30][35] Americana,[3] and blues rock elements.[36] Kerrang!'s Sam Law noted a British influence on "Hold On",[3] while AllMusic's Thom Jurek echoed this view and compared it to Black Sabbath.[33] Law described "The Chant" as "chain-gang blues, bayou gospel, bar-room Americana".[3] Fortitude has been likened to Tool,[37] Led Zeppelin,[37] Sepultura,[38][3] Killing Joke,[30][37] and Iron Maiden.[3][39]

According to Joe Duplantier, the album's title Fortitude "is to inspire people to be the best version of themselves and to be strong no matter what".[40]

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.[26]

Released on 5 August 2020, the single "Another World" became their first Billboard-charting song, debuting at No. 12 on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart.[41] It peaked at No. 5 in its second week.[42] "Another World" debuted at No. 25 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart and peaked at No. 12 in its second week.[41][43] The single scored 257,000 U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads in the tracking week ending 6 August.[41] In its first week of release, "Born for One Thing" peaked at No. 22 on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart.[42] In mid-May 2021, "New Found" peaked at No. 24 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, while "Born for One Thing" and "Amazonia" landed in the top 20.[43]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	80/100[44]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[33]
Blabbermouth	8/10[30]
Clash	[45]
Kerrang!	[20]
Metal Hammer	[38]
Metal Injection	9/10[6]
NME	[46]
New Noise Magazine	[47]
Riff Magazine	8/10[48]
Overdrive	9/10[49]

Fortitude was met with acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, the album has received a score of 80 out of 100 based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[44]

Kerrang!'s Paul Travers wrote that "Gojira never seemed like a band built for the mainstream", but that Fortitude "sounds like the album that could propel them the rest of the way to the top." He noted that the album extends the band's palette and "cements their place as one of metal's most skilled and uncompromising bands."[20]

Writing for Louder Sound, Jerry Ewing described Fortitude as "easily the best album they've made to date." He also noted that the band embraced a far proggier approach than previous albums and was also aiming for the mainstream like Mastodon's 2009 Crack the Skye.[50]

In Tom Morgan's review for Noizze, he gave the album 8/10, as well as remembered previous comparisons of Magma's stylistic departure to Gojira's previous albums as the same as Metallica's 1991 self-titled album and Mastodon's 2011 The Hunter. Different than their respective follow-ups Load and Once More 'Round the Sun, Fortitude "never makes you wish that you were listening to the band's earlier work, and instead simply feels like the natural evolution of this insanely talented band."[35]

Quentin Singer from Forbes termed Fortitude as a demonstration of a "strong sense of urgency felt on the number of social–political issues that Gojira highlight", and praised "these haunting yet poignant lyrical themes."[51]

Kory Grow of Rolling Stone thought that Gojira "mix heavy music with heavy concepts, and never once do they sound like a drag", and summed up the review by saying, "It's all the rage of death metal mixed with the conscience of punk rock and the musicality of progressive rock, and it's never boring".[34]

Loudwire included "Amazonia" on its list of the "20 Rock + Metal Songs With Social Messages"[52] and called Fortitude one of the best metal albums of 2021, writing that Gojira "explores a wide range of warm tones throughout the album's mix".[53]

In the United States, Fortitude debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, which surpassed Magma's debut on the chart.[66] The album was also No. 1 on the Billboard Tastemaker Albums chart and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Vinyl Albums chart.[67][68] With Fortitude, Gojira made their first appearance in the top ten charts of nine countries.[69] The album peaked at No. 2 on the SNPE albums chart, which marked Gojira's highest-ranking chart position in the country.[70][71]

Fortitude took the top spot on both the Billboard Top Album Sales (pure album sales) and Top Current Albums Sales charts with 27,372 album-equivalent units, out of which 24,104 were pure album sales which made the highest opening-week sales for Gojira. It increased their previous sales number by over 10,000 units. Gojira had the top-selling album in its opening week in the United States.[72][73][74][nb 1] Fortitude was ranked No. 2 in the best-selling list of the French physical record stores Fnac in its first week of release.[76] The album sold 9,900 album-equivalent units in its first week in France.[71] In mid-May 2021, the album moved up from number two to number one in its second week of album sales at Fnac record stores in France.[77]

All music is composed by Mario Duplantier and Joe Duplantier. Lyrics by Joe Duplantier.

Personnel adapted from liner notes.[80]

• List of UK top-ten albums in 2021
• List of UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart number ones of 2021