Fortitude (album)

Fortitude is the seventh studio album by French metal band Gojira. The album was released on 30 April 2021 through Roadrunner Records. It was recorded at the band's studio in New York City, and was produced by Joe Duplantier and mixed by Andy Wallace.
Gojira intended to write a more cohesive and brighter album than "Magma", emphasizing a progressive sound while incorporating guitar solos and classic rock elements with a positive lyrical message. The songwriting began in early 2018 but was put on hold due to the band's touring schedule. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the album's mixing, and its release was postponed to a later date.
"Fortitude" debuted at No. 12 on the "Billboard" 200 and sold 27,372 units in its debut week in the US, which surpassed "Magma"s chart performance. The album topped on both the "Billboard" Hard Rock Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, as well as the UK Rock & Metal Albums chart. The album ranked high on the charts in Europe and sold 9,900 units in its first week of release in France. It peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Charts. "Fortitude" was the best-selling studio album (pure sales) in the United States in its opening week.
Background.
The creative process of Gojira's seventh album began sparingly in late 2017. 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". The album was inspired as an encouragement to self-reinforcement, "to show courage to face up the world, to face tomorrow's problems".
Recording and production.
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. 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". 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. Joe Duplantier produced the album, and the band recorded it at Silver Cord Studio in late 2019. Mario Duplantier recorded eleven drum tracks in eight days in one or two take each.
Wallace mixed three songs before the first COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed, while the album was slated for a June 2020 release. Joe Duplantier, a New York State resident, was visiting his father in southwest France, which complicated the mixing process. The band 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. In July, the band returned to the mixing process over the internet and phone with Wallace. Wallace would prefer to be left alone in the studio, without assistants, being vulnerable to coronavirus infection due to his age, saying to be "infinitely upset not to be with the band". 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.
On 5 August 2020, the band released a new single called "Another World", their first single in four years. 
On 17 February 2021, Gojira announced "Fortitude" and its release date for 30 April 2021 via Roadrunner Records. On the same day, the band released an official video for its lead single, "Born for One Thing". "Fortitude" marked the longest gap between two studio albums in the band's career.
Musical style and writing.
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". The album would be emphasized by "more power, and more positivity about life in general." Mario Duplantier mentioned a slower composition process than before due to musical tastes becoming more diversified over the years. The goal was to focus the music on the "big guitar riff" rather than on the performance, with a band cohesion emphasizing this point. 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. Mario Duplantier "took a back seat to serve the riff" on "Fortitude", although he kept the polyrhythmic drumming on some songs.
"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. A part of the album is a tribute to indigenous communities.
"Fortitude" has been described as a combination of progressive metal tech-death, stoner rock, groove metal, post-metal, alternative metal, and Americana. "Kerrang!" Sam Law noted a British influence on "Hold On", while AllMusic's Thom Jurek echoed this view and compared it to Black Sabbath. Law described "The Chant" as "chain-gang blues, bayou gospel, bar-room Americana". "Fortitude" has been likened to Tool, Led Zeppelin, Sepultura, Killing Joke, and Iron Maiden.
Title and artwork.
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". 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.
Critical reception.
"Fortitude" was met with acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, the album has received a score of 81 out of 100 based on seven reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
"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."
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".
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."
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."
Chart performance.
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. It peaked at No. 5 in its second week. "Another World" debuted at No. 25 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart and peaked at No. 12 in its second week. The single scored 257,000 U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads in the tracking week ending 6 August. In its first week of release, "Born for One Thing" peaked at No. 22 on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart. 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. 
In the United States, "Fortitude" debuted at No. 12 on the "Billboard" 200, which surpassed "Magma"s debut on the chart. The album was also No. 1 on the "Billboard" Tastemaker Albums chart and peaked at No. 2 on the "Billboard" Vinyl Albums chart. With "Fortitude", Gojira made their first appearance in the top ten charts of nine countries. The album was ranked No. 2 in the best-selling list of the French physical record stores Fnac in its first week of release, and peaked at No. 2 on the SNPE albums chart, which marked Gojira's highest-ranking chart position in the country. The album sold 9,900 album-equivalent units in its first week in France. "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. 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.
Digital album sales charts.
Following its release on 30 April 2021, "Fortitude" topped the US iTunes all-genre sales chart and was positioned at No. 15 on the Worldwide Apple Music album chart. The album charted on the iTunes all-genre album sales chart in nine countries in its first week of release. It topped both the French and Brazilian charts, and peaked at No. 2 in Australia, Canada, and the UK. It peaked at No. 4 in Germany, No. 6 in Italy, and No. 7 in Spain. The album topped the Worldwide iTunes Top 100 Rock albums including the US top 40, and peaked at No. 2 in Australia. It also headed the iTunes Top 100 Heavy Metal albums chart and their entire discography simultaneously charted on this specific chart. The album topped the Worldwide iTunes all-genre album sales chart for four consecutive days.
Personnel.
Personnel adapted from liner notes.
Gojira
Additional