GOJIRA

These guys represented not only their country at the Olympic opening ceremonies, but all of metal!

Lets face it, the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies prior to 2024, were pretty drab affairs when it came to metal music.  2024 at the Paris Olympics, that all changed when the Opening Ceremonies had Gojira perform the song “Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)”.  It was an outstanding performance, and broadcasted around the world to hundreds of MILLIONS of people.   However, this was not the first time metal was represented at the Olympics.  At the 2010 Olympic closing ceremonies in Vancouver,  Nickelback did perform “Burn it to the Ground”, was that metal, that is debatable more as hard rock or metal.  Gojira are definitely a more extreme metal band and I would say this was the most metal performance we ever saw on this sort of stage.

Nevertheless, Gojira was well worthy to represent.   They have had the same core band since 1998 with Joe Deplantier (vocals, guitar), his brother Mario Duplantier (drums), Christian Andreu (guitar) and Jean-Michel Labadie (bass).  They have 7 albums in the discography, with 2021’s Fortitude album being the most current.

Tonight, we got to see them supporting Korn’s 30 Anniversary tour in the Tacoma Dome at Tacoma Washington.  These guys never disappoint, and I will report that their stage show was a lot more animated that Korn’s setup.  With lots of fire shooting out of the stage area and plenty of fog guns shooting outwards along with some great visuals on screens behind them.

This night they concentrated on 4 albums, with Fortitude getting the most with “Amazonia”, “Another World”, “Born for One Thing” and “Grind”.   With the Magma album we heard “Silvera”, “Stranded” and “The Cell”.  From Mars to Sirius album “Backbone” and as well as Joe dedicating “Flying Whales” to Canadian activist Paul Watson who is imprisoned in a Danish prison.   L’ Enfant Sauvage was not left out either with “L’ Enfant Sauvage” and “The Axe”.   One more that I was looking forward to hearing live in person was “Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)” from the Olympics, and of course, they played that too!

So all in all here, it was a great set of 12 songs, with a stunning stage show – better than I have ever seen Gojira produce from years past in small clubs.   They have really levelled up throughout the years, and I for one am excited to hear another album coming in 2025.