Gojira will release their new full-length Fortitude on April 30th through Roadrunner Records. The band’s Joe Duplantier produced the album in is Silver Cord Studio in Queens, NY with Andy Wallace handling the mixing for it. Along with this news, the band released their new single “Born For One Thing” with the music video found below. Duplantier offered the following comments regarding the video:
“We have to practice detaching ourselves from everything, beginning with actual things. Own less possessions, and give what you don’t need away, because one day we’ll have to let everything go, and if we don’t, we’ll just become ghosts stuck between dimensions.”
You can pre-order the album here. Deuplantier, in a newly published cover story feature with Kerrang! about the album, Duplantier offered the following on the album:
“A few years ago, I began to become pessimistic about the future of humanity. Even though there is an awakening and many people are trying to better themselves, I feel like we’re going backwards. When you see the [now-former] American president on TV saying, ‘I don’t know if global warming is real!’ or I hear from my friend who teaches in high school that some of his students aren’t quite sure whether Hitler was a character in a movie or someone who really existed, it can feel incredibly discouraging. I’m a little bit drained, a little bit worn out. So when the pandemic happened, I was like, ‘Fine. Let it burn. Maybe it’s just the end for us – the parasite that humanity is.’”
He also offered the following:
“Fortitude is what we need to display. It’s what we need to embrace. It’s what we need to be in a world where everything is uncertain – even the near future. Since the beginning of our band, we have promoted compassion versus competition and love versus hate. The point of ‘Fortitude‘ is to inspire people to be the best version of themselves and to be strong no matter what.
We have this incredible power that we totally ignore, and though it sucks to wake up in the morning and be caught up in the grind of life, there are all these moments where we can make a difference by our attitude; by our [perception]; by how we envision our own future and the future of humanity. It’s easy to despair and to lose faith. But at some point you’ve got to figure out where you stand.
You’ve got to ask what your attitude will be if this is the end of the world as we know it.”
He also revealed that the band originally completed the album in early 2020 and were intending to release it as a surprise last June ahead of their 2020 summer touring with Deftones and Poppy. The band was planning on holding onto the album until they had a better opportunity to but have decided to release it on its own.
Fortitude track listing:
01 – “Born For One Thing”
02 – “Amazonia”
03 – “Another World”
04 – “Hold On!”
05 – “New Found”
06 – “Fortitude”
07 – “The Chant”
08 – “Sphinx”
09 – “Into The Storm”
10 – “The Trails”
11 – “Grind”
Re-scheduled dates for the North American tour with Deftones and Poppy are below:
08/12 Minneapolis, MN – The Armory
08/14 Milwaukee, WI – Eagles Club/The Rave/Eagles Ballroom
08/15 Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill
08/17 Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
08/18 Toronto, ON – Echo Beach
08/20 Laval, QC – Place Bell
08/21 Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
08/23 Boston, MA – Agganis Arena
08/24 New York, NY – The Rooftop at Pier 17
08/27 Philadelphia, PA – The Met
08/28 Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summer Stage
08/29 Washington, DC – The Anthem
08/31 Pittsburgh, PA – Petersen Events Center
09/02 Indianapolis, IN – Amphitheater at White River State Park
09/03 Nashville, TN – Nashville Municipal Auditorium
09/04 Atlanta, GA – Cadence Bank Amphitheatre
09/06 Irving, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
09/07 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
09/08 San Antonio, TX – AT&T Center
09/10 Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
09/11 Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheatre
09/14 Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Federal Theatre
09/17 Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
09/18 San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
09/21 Seattle, WA – WAMU Theater
09/22 Portland, OR – Theatre Of The Clouds at MODA Center
