Watch Gojira drummer's incredible performance video with "Babar"

A picture of Gojira's Mario Duplantier playing his drums — (Image credit: Mario Duplantier)

Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier has shared a stunning video of him using a replication of a unique piece of scrap metal he calls "Babar".

The video, which Duplantier has titled Babar, clocks in at under a minute and shows the drummer using the giant object along with his regular kit, to create the performance piece.

It can be viewed below.

Babar is named after the elephant in French children's book Histoire de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff.

Duplantier explains that the Babar in the video is a replication of the original piece of scrap metal that was lost when the band were on tour in 2009.

He says: “Back in 1996, when my brother and I started Gojira, we were constantly looking for sound experiments. One day we were wandering around in a van looking for objects that could be used as percussion and came across an abandoned area in a village called Labenne.

"We found a large metal bar on the ground under some rubble. The sound was incredible! We brought it back to the rehearsal room. Very quickly, I integrated it in our songs. For example in unison with few snare hits (Clone, Lizard Skin, Deliverance etc.)

“We quickly gave him his name Babar like the elephant. Every gig we played we took him with us, and even though Babar took up half the space in our van, we wanted him on stage with us all the time! Babar is among others, present in the intro of The Art of Dying.

“One day after a concert in France in 2009, Babar was left on a sidewalk during a load out. Babar was lost and had disappeared. In 2011, I met an artist, José Aguirre, who was willing to reproduce a new identical percussion. And even if the sound was slightly different, I had the feeling to have found Babar my lost percussion so dear.

"Since Gojira became international obviously we could not take it to all countries. His size is far too big so Babar is quietly sitting in our French HQ.”

Gojira's seventh album, Fortitude, was released in 2021.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.