Gojira have teased fans with a snippet of their as-yet-untitled record, which is due out this summer.
The French group have been working on the follow-up to 2012’s L’Enfant Sauvage in frontman Joe DuPlantier’s newly built New York studio.
He and his drummer brother Mario say that many of the album’s songs were half-written when their mother died.
Joe tells Rolling Stone: “The songs were half-written while she was sick. After she died, I still had to finish them. So one song was like, ‘You’re going to make it,’ but the second verse is ‘You didn’t make it.’
“I felt physically, mentally exhausted. At the same time, though, the way it happened was beautiful. We were all around her. We had to cancel a few shows when she died, but it was very enriching at the same time. We learned a lot about death.”
Mario adds: “When you read Joe’s lyrics, for me, I cry right away. They’re very deep and to the point. No bullshit. We recycle our sadness and depression in the music.”
Gojira will appear at a run of festival dates this summer, including the Download festival, Donington, on June 12.
Gojira tour dates 2016
May 28: Dortmund Rock Im Revier, Germany
May 29: Munich Rockavaria, Germany
May 31: Warsaw Stodola, Poland
Jun 01: Krakow Kwadrat Klub, Poland
Jun 03: Lucerne Sonisphere, Switzerland
Jun 04: Nijmegen Fortarock, Netherlands
Jun 05: Vienna Rock In Vienna, Austria
Jun 10: Paris Download Festival, France
Jun 12: Donington Download, UK
Jun 14: Grenoble La Belle Electrique, France
Jun 17: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jun 18: Dessel Graspop, Belgium
Jun 19: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jul 03: Helsingfors Tuska Festival, Finland
Jul 08: Viveiro Resurrection Fest, Spain
Jul 16: Bridgeview Chicago Open Air, IL
Jul 17: Festival D’Ete Quebec, Canada
Jul 23: Eid Malakoff Festival, Norway
Aug 13: Catton Bloodstock Festival, UK
