French metal band Gojira’s new album Fortitude has debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Albums Sales Charts, meaning the LP sold more traditional copies than any other album last week.
Fortitude also debuted at No. 12 on the overall Billboard 200 chart, which tabulates from different metrics, including streaming. The LP’s first-week sales were 27,000 copies, 24,000 of which were pure album sales.
The No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, DJ Khaled’s Khaled Khaled, shifted 94,000 equivalent album units, but only 15,000 were pure sales. Technically, Gojira sold more traditional copies, but DJ Khaled’s significant amount of album-equivalent streams lifted him to No. 1.
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Fortitude also topped Billboard’s Top Current Album Sales, Top Rock Albums, and Hard Rock Albums charts. The LP was certainly anticipated, coming after a lengthy five-year gap following 2016’s Magma (which peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard 200). Gojira let few details out of the hat before unveiling a string of excellent singles beginning with 2020’s “Another World”.
The new album continues Gojira’s mission of social and environmental awareness, imbuing songs with poignant socio-political messages. The tracks are also noticeably more concise and hook-driven compared to the progressive extreme metal of the band’s early albums.
Gojira are set to hit the road in support of Deftones for a US summer tour that was rescheduled from last year. After that, they’ll appear at the Aftershock Festival before headlining a short run of fall dates across smaller U.S. markets with support from Knocked Loose and Alien Weaponry.
