GOJIRA's MARIO DUPLANTIER Releases 'Minotaur' Drum Composition

Drummer Mario Duplantier of French progressive metallers GOJIRA has released a drum composition he recently created. Dubbed "Minotaur", the solo "has been composed around a drum pattern I particularly love, the alternate single stroke roll 'between the hands and the feet,'" he explained. "I've never used it with GOJIRA, but this effect can be spectacular."

The "Minotaur" video, which was directed by Anne Deguehegny, can be seen below.

In a 2014 interview with U.K.'s Rhythm magazine, Mario revealed that METALLICA's Lars Ulrich was "maybe the only influence" he had when he first picked up a pair of drum sticks. "I started playing drums at 12 years old," he said. "At that time my big brother was in a band and was a big influence on me. He introduced me to music and spontaneously I wanted to play drums.

"Maybe the first time I saw a video with the big thing called drums was Lars Ulrich with his white Tama drums," he continued. "That was a big shock for me and right away I wanted to try. Lars was my biggest influence, maybe the only influence I had starting out. After that, I started listening to more metal and got into SEPULTURA with Igor Cavalera on drums, Igor and Lars were my biggest influences and then I discovered more extreme music."

GOJIRA has spent the last couple of years touring and working on the follow-up to 2016's "Magma" album.

"Magma" earned GOJIRA its first-ever Grammy nominations for "Best Metal Performance" and "Best Rock Album." GOJIRA's crushing track "Silvera" received a nomination for "Best Metal Performance", while "Magma" was nominated for "Best Rock Album" at the awards.