This one has been hitting me particularly hard lately, a winding, dissonant pulse that never fails to draw me to a dark and calming place. Gojira’s albums are filled with aggressive, intense passages that explore themes of trauma, mysticism, and death, but none of their songs feel as heavy as this, no doubt influenced by the passing of the Duplantier matriarch1. Yet throughout, as with most of Joseph’s lyrics, is a sense of hope and optimism in the face of the chaos that constantly threatens to drown us all.
I’m at a point in my life — again — where it’s good to know that music can still bring me to tears. I long believed SNRIs had robbed me of the ability to cry in those small moments between life-changing crises.
It’s a solace I gladly accept when sleep is a rose that rarely graces my garden nowadays. Even when I stay up beyond the point of exhaustion, I begin to stir shortly after passing out with thoughts swimming in my head, anxious and terrified before I realize I’m already awake again.
And when I can’t concentrate on the things that used to bring me joy, when all I can do is sit in the blackness of my room, drunk, stoned, and sedated, I’ll take any comfort I can get.
- Mother of brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier, the lead vocalist / rhythm guitarist and drummer. [↩]