Who are Gojira, the Metal Band from Olympic Opening Ceremony?

If spectators thought the Opening Ceremony’s musical lineup couldn’t get extra thrilling, suppose once more.

Heavy steel music simply made its epic Olympic debut on the 2024 Summer time Video games in Paris, and it’s plain to see why organizers selected French arduous rock band Gojira to carry out. The award-winning musicians are hailed as rock gods within the Olympics’ host nation, drawing such an audible response from followers over the many years that they *actually* maintain information for his or her loud sound.

The band carried out from platforms off a constructing, fusing their sound Swiss opera singer Marina Viotti. The end result was an iconic spectacle. 

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Preserve studying to be taught extra about Gojira and its influence on the music world.

Who’re Gojira?

The early days of Gojira — which loosely interprets to “Godzilla”— started in 1993 with teenage French-American brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier jamming out of their storage within the Bayonne suburbs of southwestern France, Joe instructed Revolver Journal in 2012. Joe, the band’s rhythm guitarist and vocalist, mentioned he was first launched to bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden at age 14 because of his cousins, and his rapid determination to kind a band was “impulsive.”

“It had a wierd impact on me like no different music,” he continued. “We’d do Metallica covers, however we weren’t ok to do them proper.”

Joe mentioned Mario, 5 years his junior, went on to begin his personal rock band at 12, they usually have been “ten instances higher.” However the brothers, at ages 19 and 14, ultimately joined forces to create the band that will grow to be Gojira, and in 1996, they recruited then-19-year-old lead guitarist Christian Andreu. Bassist Jean-Michel Labadie joined two years later.

Over the many years, their heavier death- and thrash-metal sound advanced right into a extra religious and melodic steel model, typically with lyrics supporting human and environmental rights.

The Rise of Gojira

Their early demos, plus their first two albums, Terra Incognita and The Hyperlink, within the early 2000s, gained Gojira immense recognition within the Basque nation’s music scene. Nevertheless, their third studio album, From Mars to Sirius (produced by American report label Prosthetic) acquired them large recognition in Europe. Singles “Ocean Planet” and “Flying Whales,” which highlighted marine conservation and environmental advocacy, helped Rolling Stone listing From Mars to Sirius as one of many prime 100 steel albums of all time.

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“Gojira emerged within the early 2000s — a time dominated by black-metal purists and emo-metal crossover scenesters — with a guts-meets-brains combo of rock, thrash, and loss of life steel,” the music outlet wrote.

Radio play acquired the eye of American loss of life steel band Lamb of God, they usually turned a few of Gojira’s first champions on the steel scene, in accordance with Revolver. Metallica frontman James Hetfield additionally took a liking to their music “Flying Whales.” In 2009, Gojira joined each bands on tour within the U.S. and Canada, making an excellent greater identify for themselves on the American steel scene.

In 2012, touring with Metallica on the Stade de France, the nation’s largest stadium, Gojira broke the report with 120 decibels for emitting the loudest sound on the enviornment, in accordance with Le Parisien.

The Duplantier brothers already had sturdy ties in America from their mom’s facet, they usually stored one foot in France and one other in New York Metropolis, the place Gojira commonly information at Joe Duplantier’s Queens-based studio. In France, they report at Le Studio des Milans of their hometown of Ondres.

“Since I used to be a child, I’ve been fascinated by town, by New York generally,” Joe mentioned in a 2013 interview with Decibel Journal. “It’s like an explosion of vitality, tradition, and leisure — there’s a lot happening in New York, and so many alternative individuals… There’s a lot happening, which is actually good for me, for my spirit. I name Brooklyn residence.”

In New York, Gojira produced their sixth studio album, Magma, which earned them a 2017 Grammy Award nomination for Finest Rock Album. The album’s single, Silvera, was additionally nominated for Finest Steel Efficiency. Their 2021 single, Amazonia — which helped elevate funds for Indigenous individuals’s rights in Brazil — acquired them a 3rd Grammy nomination for Finest Steel Efficiency.

Gojira has carried out alongside a few of steel’s largest names, together with Cannibal Corpse, Meshuggah, and Kids of Bodom. Their music continues to prime charts across the globe and has earned quite a few awards and nominations in rock music, together with these by Loudwire, Revolver, and the Heavy Music Awards.

It stays one in every of France’s largest rock bands of all time.

About Gojira’s activism

As if being internationally famend rock gods wasn’t sufficient, Gojira does great work in opposition to inequality and injustice. In recent times, they’ve fought to guard the Amazonian rainforests, cease elephant slaughter, and promote consciousness for local weather change, amongst their quite a few causes, as proven on the band’s web site.

Joe Duplantier touched on the group’s activism when selling Gojira’s 2021 Billboard-topping album, Fortitude, in an interview with Guitar.com.

“Rock is the music of revolt; it has all of the parts,” he mentioned. “It’s acquired to have one thing that may make you suppose, one thing that may activate you. If it doesn’t, the phrases that come out, the music that comes out, it’s only a noise.”

Joe added he wished to be “a part of an answer” on this world “as a substitute of being a part of the issue.”

The band has fundraised for the struggle in opposition to HIV/AIDS, Greenpeace, and sea conservation, amongst different causes.  They proceed to take their activism with them as they proceed touring the usA. in September 2024 with American band Korn, in accordance with their web site.