GRAMMY® Award-winning band Mastodon continues to chart its own course through its highly successful music career. Founded in Atlanta, GA in 2000 by Troy Sanders (bass/vocals), Brent Hinds (guitar/vocals), Bill Kelliher (guitar), and Brann Dailor (drums/vocals), the group have unleashed a series of influential albums. Rolling Stone notably cited 2004’s Leviathan on its coveted The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. Meanwhile, Crack The Skye closed out 2009 on year-end lists by everyone from Time to Spin. They delivered three consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with The Hunter [2011], Once More ‘Round the Sun [2014], and Emperor of Sand [2017]. Mastodon has been nominated for GRAMMY’S® five times to date. The group commemorated their late manager Nick John with their 2019 take on “Stairway To Heaven,” affectionately entitled “Stairway To Nick John.” Initially released for Record Store Day, all proceeds benefit the Hirschberg Foundation For Pancreatic Cancer Research. Their evolution continues later this year, with their ninth full-length offering for Reprise Records produced by David Bottrill [Tool, Rush], Hushed and Grim.

Gojira tends to operate in polar extremes. “I can’t help but see humanity as a parasite,” Gojira’s co-founding guitarist and principal songwriter Joe Duplantier explains, “and yet the most beautiful things come out of humans.” To that end, the French quartet—Duplantier and his brother Mario [drums], Christian Andreu [guitar], and Jean-Michel Labadie [bass]—have spent the past 15 years translating this duality into a distinctive sound: dark, crushing metal brightened by triumphant arena-rock melodies, contrast-heavy and emotionally charged. Enter 2016's Magma, whereupon Gojira found strength—and crossover success—through a singular commitment to self-reflection. It debuted at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 chart, topped the Billboard “Hard Rock Albums” chart (a first for a French band), and netted nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance (for "Silvera") at the 59th annual Grammy Awards.

Humbled and honored as he was by Magma’s success, Duplantier came out of that victory lap feeling exhausted—and eager to move on.  And so, Gojira made a group decision: for album number seven, Fortitude, they’d have some damn fun. In late 2019, the brothers Duplantier returned to Silver Cord Studio, their Ridgewood, Queens, headquarters, to begin work on new, self-produced Gojira material, culled from ideas they’d developed over the past two years. “With this album, we wanted to come back with more joy, more power, and more positivity about life in general,” Joe explains. “We’re so lucky to do what we love; it’s not like we were depressed or anything, but we had something in our system to express—Magma—and we felt like it was time for something else—something that is all about strength.”