Gojira

Formed in Ondres, France in 1996 by brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier, Christian Andreu and Alexandre Cornillon, the heavy metal rock group Gojira take their name from the Roman/Japanese word for Godzilla. Singer/guitarist Joe and drummer Mario with Andreu on lead guitar and Jean-Michelle Labadie on bass, had started out as Godzilla but had to change it for copyright reasons; Labadie succeeded Cornillon on bass in 1998 and they made their debut under the current name with Terra Incognita in 2001. They toured in support of other bands until 2009 when they had their first headline outing across North America. Their 2008 album The Way of All Flesh made it to Number 138 on the Billboard 200 but L'Enfant Sauvage broke through to Number 34 on the chart in 2012. More importantly it reached Number 13 on the Top Rock Chart and Number 6 on the Hard Rock Chart. Les Enfants Sauvages came out in 2014 featuring a live CD, DVD and photo book. In 2016 their album Magma topped the Hard Rock Chart, reached Number 4 on the Top Rock Albums Chart and placed at Number 24 on the Billboard 200. The release was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album and the single “Silvera” garnered a nod for Best Metal Performance. The band was quiet for a few years before retuning with a new single, “Another World”, in 2020. The album Fortitude followed in 2021, as did the charity single “Amazonia”.