Mario Duplantier — born in France in 1981 — is Gojira's drummer and one of the most respected names of his generation in metal. He founded the band with his brother Joe in Bayonne in 1996, and much of the rhythmic signature that makes Gojira recognisable is his. His writing works with irregular metres, displaced accents and a use of double kick that seeks not speed but patterns — figures that repeat and fall out of step, creating the sense of mechanical weight that characterises the band. It is an approach almost opposite to traditional death metal, where the drums serve as an engine. His precision is what lets Gojira perform complex structures without sounding academic. The tracks change metre and character repeatedly, and it falls to the drums to keep continuity — work demanding dynamic control as well as technique. He is also a draughtsman and visual artist, with his own work exhibited outside music. In 2024 he played with Gojira at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, the first time a metal band occupied that stage.
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