Gojira’s Joe Duplantier Responds to Accusations of Satanic Olympics Performance

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Gojira's Joe Duplantier detailed the events leading up to the band's performance at the Olympics opening ceremony while responding to accusations of Satanism.

Due to the dark nature of Gojira's roughly three-minute performance, which merged metal with opera as the band performed atop balconies jutting out from a castle wall, fire blazing from below and dozens of beheaded figures of Marie Antoinette adorning each window.

With pummeling riffs and harsh vocals accompanying the scene, it was unimpeachably metal. Satanic? Not even close.

READ MORE: Fans Mock Critics Calling Band's Olympics Performance 'Satanic'

"It’s none of that," vocalist/guitarist Joe Duplantier asserts with Rolling Stone, "It’s French history. It’s French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine and blood all over the place — it’s romantic, it’s normal."

"There’s nothing satanic," he laughs, detailing the country's pride in severing religion's ties to government.

"France is a country that made a separation between the state and religion during the revolution. And it’s something very important, very dear to the foundation of republican France," Duplantier states, even noting that there is even a word to define this. "We call it laïcité. It’s when the state is not religious anymore," he continues, "so therefore it’s free in terms of expression and symbolism." "It’s all about history and facts," the Gojira frontman insists. "We don’t we don’t look too close closely at symbolism in terms of religion."

READ MORE: Op-Ed - What Gojira's Olympics Performance Really Means for Metal + Its Future

In another misunderstanding about history, many viewers mistook a scene in the opening ceremony, confusing it for a mockery of the biblical "The Last Supper" painting by Leonardo da Vinci with Satanic undercurrents.

The ceremony's art director, Thomas Jolly, assured everyone this scene has no connection to Christianity. "There is Dionysus who arrives on this table. He is there because he is the God of celebration in Greek mythology,” Jolly said on the French news channel BFM-TV Sunday [via Today]. “The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone.”

Joe Duplantier Petitioning for Release of Captain Paul Watson for Protecting Whales

Elsewhere in the interview, Duplantier brought attention to a cause he and Gojira have actively been campaigning for — the protection of whales. Captain Paul Watson, an activist who works to enforce maritime laws and stop illegal poaching and is known for the Whale Wars TV show, is currently being held in Greenland as a prisoner of the Danish government.

Duplantier was asked if he has had the opportunity to speak with French President Emmanuel Macron following the Olympics opening ceremony, but he has not. Still, he is hopeful for the opportunity, which he wants to use to advance his cause.

"I haven’t spoken to Emmanuel Macron yet, but I would love to, because he and I have something in common right now as we speak, and that’s knowing Captain Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace, co-founder of Sea Shepherd and founder of Neptune’s Pirates and the Paul Watson Foundation, that is protecting whales and marine wildlife internationally, is currently held prisoner in Nuuk, Greenland, by the Danish government," the Gojira frontman explains.

He adds, "I would love to meet President Macron and the Prime Minister of Justice of Denmark after the whole buzz and the whole fuss around the Olympics to talk about Paul Watson being held captive for trying to do the right thing for trying to enforce international laws that protect marine wildlife. He could stay in jail for the rest of his life. So this is my fight today."

"I know Emmanuel Macron supports Paul Watson and asked the Danish government to release Paul Watson today, so he can continue to be an activist and educate people on the importance of preserving wildlife and the importance of not breaking international laws," Duplantier goes on, "He got arrested while trying to simply put himself between whales and a boat, as he usually does. I know he has bad press, and people call him ecoterrorist, and all that kind of stuff."

Speaking about their personal relationship, Duplantier says of Watson, "But he’s a friend of mine. I know he has a good heart. And I know what he’s doing is very important. I’ll actually be on the way to Copenhagen in a few days and I hope to meet with the prime minister of justice there."

Read the full interview at Rolling Stone.