I admit I was a little worried leading up to ‘Fortitude’ being released, and I do not believe I was alone. Worried about Gojira being able to keep up with their consecutively amazing records, wondering about their possible evolution after ‘Magma’, a record that immediately provoked the reaction of ‘what could possibly follow that’. ‘Born for one Thing’ didn’t help, as it was somewhat familiar and too close to a couple of their older songs.
As it turns out, there was no need for any trepidation whatsoever. The Duplantier brothers, or someone from Roadrunner, chose the… ‘wrong’ single, but the record keeps getting better as it goes on. ‘Hold on’ is nothing less than a stadium hit, guitars on my personal favorite, ‘New Found’ are of Dimebag caliber (just imagine the last minute played live and weep) while ‘Sphinx’ & ‘Into the Storm’ are of the same quality, the latter borrowing a ‘Disposable Heroes’ riff and combining it with one of their best choruses so far for maximum impact and efficiency.
Of course, Gojira are never to only be congratulated merely for their music, but rather are equally impressive when it comes to lyrics and overall aesthetics, culminating with their fundraising activities regarding the Amazon river area. Félicitations chers messieurs.