Gojira

Gojira started out in 1996 in Ondres, France, calling themselves Godzilla, and by the time they became Gojira in 2001, the lineup was set for good: brothers Joe Duplantier on vocals and guitar and Mario Duplantier on drums, Christian Andreu on guitar and Jean-Michel Labadie on bass. Terra Incognita and The Link, plus a fearsome live show, made them the leading lights of French metal, and they wrote songs about spirituality, philosophy and the fate of the planet rather than dragons and gore.

From Mars to Sirius, in 2005, was the one the critics went mad for: technical death metal with room to breathe, all pummeling drums, great tectonic riffs and a strange, haunted beauty. "Flying Whales" is the centerpiece, slow-swelling and colossal, with "Backbone" and "The Heaviest Matter of the Universe" hitting like a landslide. The Way of All Flesh followed on Prosthetic, which opened up North America for them.

Roadrunner signed them in 2011. L'Enfant Sauvage came next, and Magma, in 2016, swapped death metal for something leaner and more direct, with "Stranded" as its crushing groove, and it became their breakthrough. Fortitude followed, and in 2024 they became the first heavy metal band to play an Olympics opening ceremony. They still produce their own records, in studios they run in France and New York City.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.