Gojira originally announced their Sea Shepherd EP in 2010 reportedly featuring guest spots from Devin Townsend, Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah), Randy Blythe (Lamb of God), Anders Fridén (In Flames) and Max Cavalera (Soulfly). The song "Of Blood And Salt" with Townsend and Thordendal surfaced in 2011, but Gojira made it known that the rest of the EP was lost at the time due to hard drive failures.
The Sea Shepherd has become a legend over the years, with Gojira bringing it up here and there saying they'd like to release it eventually. Turns out they've tried twice. In an interview with Kerrang!, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier said he planned on getting the Sea Shepherd EP together before Magma in 2016 and Fortitude in 2021. Duplantier added that unfortunately the press cycle around both records took precedence, but jokes "I will release [the songs from Sea Shepherd] before I die!"
"The one track that we did bring out, 'Of Blood And Salt' featuring Devin Townsend and Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah, was great, but then it got buried – at first under technical issues, then under all of the other things we have going on. Some of it got lost; some of it needs rebuilding.
"Before we brought out [2016 album] Magma, we had a meeting and decided that it was something we wanted to release before the album, but the record label wanted us to release after so that it didn't interfere with all of the expectation that was building. After the album came out, it turned out that we were so busy that we barely had time to catch up with life. You have to rehearse, you have to be ready for tour, you have so many interviews and obligations.
"Then the same thing happened during [2021 album] Fortitude. There are three more songs somewhere on a hard drive still to come out some day. I will release them before I die!"
