FORTITUDE

"Fortitude" is the 7th full-length studio album by French progressive/groove metal act Gojira. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in April 2021. It´s the successor to "Magma" from 2016. 5 years between album releases is quite a long time even these days, but it´s not unusual for Gojira to spend a lot of time writing their material, and they´ve always been a hard working act touring the world, so the years have been spend doing something productive (and hopefully also on reloading their batteries for another round of touring).

"L'Enfant Sauvage (2012)" and especially "Magma (2016)" saw Gojira going down a slightly more accessible and less progressive road with more easily recognisable vers/chorus structures and in the case of the latter the addition of some clean vocals. "Fortitude" is the natural continuation of that tendency as it´s also a relatively accessible release featuring both clean vocals and raw shouted vocals. The tracks are also vers/chorus structured and relatively easy to follow, although Gojira are at times a little more adventurous and add some semi-progressive ideas to their material. Gojira are known for their use of heavy syncopated riffs and rhythms are those are present here too, but "Fortitude" is also a very atmospheric album and in some cases a very melodic album. Mid-90s Sepultura isn´t the worst reference if you need one (especially the percussion driven "Amazonia" points in that direction), but Gojira have by now forged a sound of their own.

Highlights include the heavy opener "Born for One Thing", and the equally heavy tracks "Sphinx" and "Grind", but melodic tracks like "The Chant" and "The Trails", which at times remind me of the most heavy and hard edged material by Soundgarden or something in that vein, are also great for the variation of the album, and the diversity of the material is definitely one of the great strengths of "Fortitude". It´s an album which is intriguing and dynamic all the way through the 11 track, 51:52 minutes long playing time. Gojira don´t focus all their energy on technical playing and progressive structures anymore, and to my ears their more simple and stripped down songwriting approach works well for them. Simple in this respect should of course not be understood as if Gojira have lost any of their incredible playing skills, because they are as well playing/singing as ever, but they´ve stripped their playing and their compositions down to the essence, and that approach suits them well.

"Fortitude" features a powerful, organic, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly. Upon conclusion "Fortitude" is another high quality release by Gojira, which shows progression towards a more accessible yet dynamic sound, but still sounds unmistakably like Gojira. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).