GOJIRA: New Audio Interview With JOE DUPLANTIER Available

Headbanger's Blog recently tracked down frontman Joe Duplantier of the French progressive-extreme metallers GOJIRA to discuss the creation of the band's new album, "The Way of All Flesh", what inspired him to write an LP about death, what he thinks awaits beyond the abyss, his contributions to the CAVALERA CONSPIRACY and why the French metal scene is stronger now than it has been in years. You can stream the interview below (scroll to the bottom of this story).

A brand new GOJIRA song entitled "Vacuity" has been posted on the band's MySpace page. The track comes "The Way of All Flesh", which is scheduled for release on October 13 in Europe via Listenable Records and one day later in the U.S. through Prosthetic Records. The cover artwork (see below) was created by Joe Duplantier, who was also responsible for the artwork for GOJIRA's previous album, 2005's "From Mars to Sirius".

"The Way Of All Flesh" track listing:

01. Oroborus
02. Toxic Garbage Island
03. A Sight To Behold
04. Yama's Messengers
05. The Silver Cord
06. Adoration For None
07. All The Tears
08. The Art Of Dying
09. Esoteric Surgery
10. Vacuity
11. Wolf Down The Earth
12. The Way Of All Flesh

Joe Duplantier recently told MTV's Metal File that "Flesh" is a conceptual work, focusing on the morbid topic of death.

"That's the theme — it's about death itself," he explained. "It's also about the immortality of the soul. That's the main subject for us. Since we started to play and release albums, we've always talked about the same thing: the soul.

"This album's got a more dramatic feel to it, and some of the lyrics are almost cynical," continued Duplantier. "Usually, with my lyrics, I'm always positive. But on this album, I'm so pissed off with the situation on Earth right now, how we're abusing so much, and we take everything that we can take from the ocean, and we kill off endangered species. So in some of the songs, it's almost like a requiem for the Earth. This record is a lot darker — like, a lot darker, I would say. The music is darker and more violent."

Regarding the new CD's musical direction, Duplantier said, "I think that, probably, some people will be disappointed by some things we did on this album, but there is also a very logical evolution of our music since 'From Mars to Sirius'. It's pretty much what we want to hear from a band, and that's been our goal since the beginning — to play music we could enjoy. And for the first time, we are happy with the sound we've achieved by being our own producers for all these years. We've never had an external person telling us what to do, and for the first time, we're very happy with the sound, because it's just so powerful."