Joe and Mario Duplantier were working on Gojira’s seventh album, Fortitude, in the autumn of 2019, when the news hit the headlines: the Amazon was on fire. Not just a small, natural fire, but acres set ablaze by land-grabbing farmers and loggers, killing wildlife and endangering tribes across Brazil and other South American countries. Most people are so numb to the 24-hour news cycle that they’d see the story and move on. Not the Duplantier brothers.On that same day, sick to their stomachs, they took to their instruments and played with white-hot rage. The result was recent single Amazonia, a groove metal anthem driven by a jaw harp, augmented by throat singing and inspired by the tribal percussive barrage of Roots-era Sepultura. ‘The greatest miracle is burning to the ground!’ cries Joe.But it wasn’t enough to write a song about the Amazon crisis; they wanted to do something about it, too. Frontman Joe made phone call aft
and not doing themselves simultaneously. Starting at conception, ‘
Born For One Thing‘ is an existential lamenting of how life must end; that what’s given must be returned. Neck-sliding back and forth harmonic rings birth it, dropping into a hardened and groovy prog-chug verse that’s pure
Gojira, before the ghostly melodic atmosphere of its sublime chorus cracks through.
Gojira employs many riff and rhythmic tropes, but they always pull it off well: It just hits differently when it comes from them. That’s this song in a nutshell. The bruising metal instrumentals, repeating melodic motif, and
Joe’s Duplantier wet vocal mixing all create a powerful contrast. And my god, the late-song breakdown with hair-raising pinches is one hell of a double-down prior to further panicked riffs ushering in an