At the age of seventeen, while in high school, vocalist and guitarist Joe Duplantier formed his first band called Eclipse after discovering heavy metal three years earlier.

[3] Joe and Mario Duplantier, aged nineteen and fourteen respectively in 1996, decided to start a technical death metal band emphasizing melodies[4] and recruited nineteen-year-old guitarist Christian Andreu.

The band went on a nationwide tour to promote Terra Incognita, sharing the stage with French death–thrash metal crossover acts such as Scarve,[10] Hertz and Silence,[24] Nihil, and No Flag.

[1] In late May 2004, the organizers of the concert venue Le Florida in Agen invited Gojira and Yat-Kha for a three-show one-night stand of metal and ethno-rock music.

[29] Prosthetic Records released From Mars to Sirius in the US on 22 August 2006,[48] which led to a sudden pre-order of 5,000 copies on the label's website,[51] followed by an upload of a cover version of Metallica's "Escape".

[52] AllMusic writer Eduardo Rivadavia highlighted the album's songwriting, describing the "fluidity with which utmost heaviness and delicate melodies were made to coexist" in songs such as "Flying Whales", "World to Come", and "Where Dragons Dwell".

[68] In August, two months before the album was released, Gojira performed "Vacuity" live for the first time at the Rock en France Festival in Arras as the opening act for Metallica.

Described in an article in Le Télégramme as "more powerful" than Motörhead's concert in 2008 on the same stage, the show began with "Lizard Skin" to an estimated crowd of 40,000 to 50,000; twenty minutes later, between 4,000 and 5,000 people remained.

[104][105] In March 2012, Devin Townsend and Meshuggah's Fredrik Thordendal joined Gojira for the collaboration track "Of Blood And Salt" (intended to appear on the unreleased Sea Shepherd EP) at the Soundwave Festival in Australia.

[129] However, despite instabilities, the band continued to tour North America[128] and was included at the Slipknot's Knotfest at Somerset Amphitheater with Cannibal Corpse, Deftones, and Serj Tankian.

[141] Gojira made its first Israeli appearance on 15 August 2013 at Reading 3 in Tel Aviv, a "packed venue", according to Terrorizer's Avi Pitchon,[142] whose security barriers were bent by the crowd.

[149] The band played throughout the United States and Europe, including Rock on the Range,[150] Resurrection Fest,[151] Garorock Festival in Marmande (for the third time)[152] and the Graspop Metal Meeting.

[158] Audio files were created sporadically since late 2013 "on the computer in the tour bus", said Mario Duplantier;[159] the new songs were a change in style for the band, as Joe experimented with clean vocals.

Gojira went to Japan as the supporting act for Slayer in Osaka and Tokyo in October 2015, followed by a performance at the Loud Park Festival at Saitama Super Arena before returning to Israel shortly afterwards.

[193] The band played a US headlining tour during the fall; Converge, Code Orange, Pallbearer, Oni, and Torche supported them on selected dates with festival appearances.

[219] On 1 November, Lamb of God's Randy Blythe made a guest appearance at Gojira's concert in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, which marked the first time they had performed "Adoration for None" live together.

Writer Remfry Dedman said that the album "reinvented the band's signature death metal sound, introducing an accessible thread without compromising their raw intensity".

Joe Duplantier said that "Ride the Lightning saved my life when I faced difficult times in high school"[251] and has also cited Machine Head's 1994 album, Burn My Eyes, as an influence.

In 2021, Joe Duplantier said that traditional rock, blues, and Americana had been childhood influences "reawakened" by long conversations with Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds: "The older the other guys and I get, the more we appreciate it".

[209] In recollecting the band's early history, Joe Duplantier explained how they were "nourished by the rock energy of the Basque Country, fairly unique in France," but, by contrast, compared it to the broader context of their lifestyle, secluded in a forest with their American musical influences while being detached from the local scene.

[281][nb 9] Joe Duplantier expressed the band's support for Sea Shepherd and its founder, Paul Watson, when he appeared onstage between two Gojira songs at the June 2012 Rock am Ring Festival in Germany.

[289] The campaign quadrupled its initial goal of $75,000 on 30 April 2021, raising more than $300,000 by selling autographed instruments and memorabilia from bands such as Metallica, Slash, Slayer, Tool, and Lamb of God.

[290][nb 10] Items in the auction included one of Slash's signature top hats, a signed Gibson "Appetite" Les Paul, and an autographed Fender Precision Bass used by Labadie during the recording of From Mars to Sirius.

[291] The band's 2021 music video for "The Chant", filmed in West Bengal, was inspired by Tenzin Tsundue and depicts the refugee children of Tibet during its invasion by China in 1949 fleeing their country in the hope of preserving their culture.

[303] In 2003, Gojira received a request from Marty to compose the instrumental music for Maciste in Hell, a 1925 Italian black-and-white silent film directed by Guido Brignone, and to perform it at the Rock School Barbey, a former Bordeaux theater.

"[26] In early November 2010, Gojira entered a Los Angeles studio with producer Logan Mader to begin recording a four-song extended play whose proceeds would benefit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-whaling organization.

[321][nb 13] Gojira has influenced bands and musicians such as the Agonist,[323] Alien Weaponry,[324] Avatar,[325] Betraying the Martyrs,[326] Black Crown Initiate,[327] the Contortionist,[328] Erra,[329] Fit for an Autopsy,[330] Hypno5e,[331] Jinjer,[332] Tallah drummer Max Portnoy,[333] Miss May I,[334] Rolo Tomassi,[335] and Thy Art Is Murder.

[337] Vocalist and guitarist Josh Middleton of Sylosis said that his vocal approach was inspired by Gojira: "when From Mars to Sirius came out, this album was huge for most people who love heavy music ...

[354] In June 2021, Brad Angle of Guitar World called Gojira "titans of groove metal: progressive, heavy-hitting riff giants", adding that they continue "in the lineage of Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera, Lamb of God and others".

They wrote that the genus Ophiogojira was named in honor of Gojira "for producing songs of an unfathomable intensity, beautifully dark and heavy, and exploring the abyss of life and death, of human strength and error, and of thriving and yet threatened oceans.