# Mario Duplantier's Drum Setup on Gojira's The Link (2003) > Complete breakdown of Mario Duplantier's transitional drum kit on Gojira's The Link (2003). Discover his Mapex Black Panther setup, Paiste 2002 cymbals, and how this record bridged Terra Incognita's raw energy and From Mars to Sirius's landmark sound. **Type:** Album Drum Setup **Drummer(s):** [Mario Duplantier](/llms/drummers/mario-duplantier.md) **Band / Album:** Gojira — *The Link* (2003) **Genre:** Progressive Death Metal ## Overview Released in June 2003, "The Link" is the pivotal second album that sits at the exact midpoint of Gojira's artistic trajectory. Between the raw, lo-fi aggression of their debut "Terra Incognita" (2001) and the landmark production of "From Mars to Sirius" (2005), "The Link" captures a band — and a drummer — in the act of becoming something extraordinary. Mario Duplantier was 22 years old when The Link was recorded. His drumming here is lean and hungry: less polished than his later studio work but bristling with the creative energy of a musician discovering his own voice. The tribal tom patterns, the dual-bass-drum interlocking grooves, and the extreme dynamic range that would define his playing on later records are all present in nascent form — you can hear the blueprint being drawn. The gear Mario used reflects this transitional moment. He had moved away from the entry-level setups of Terra Incognita and into his first serious professional configuration: a Mapex Black Panther kit paired with Paiste 2002 cymbals. These were working musician tools chosen for power and durability — not endorsement contracts, just the equipment he could source and afford as a young drummer in Bayonne, France, playing extreme metal for a cult audience. That pragmatism shows in the recording. "The Link" has a rawer, more live-feeling sound than its successor, but it's a quality rawness — the kind that makes the performances feel urgent and unmediated. Mario's kick drums hit like a physical event. His snare cracks with authority. And the Paiste 2002s cut through the mix with a brightness that suits the album's aggressive, death metal-adjacent approach. This article documents every piece of gear Mario Duplantier used on Gojira's "The Link" — the equipment behind one of progressive metal's most important transitional records. ## Gear Breakdown - **Drums:** Mapex Mapex Black Panther (Black Lacquer finish) - **Snare:** Mapex Mapex Black Panther, 14" x 6.5" - **Cymbals:** Paiste — Paiste 2002 - **Hardware / Pedals:** Tama Iron Cobra; Tama Iron Cobra Hi-Hat Stand; Vic Firth 5A American Classic - **Heads:** Remo Emperor Coated (batter), Remo Ambassador Snare Side (resonant) - **Snare tuning:** High-medium for attack and articulation in dense metal context ### The First Professional Rig: Mapex Black Panther For "The Link," Mario Duplantier played a Mapex Black Panther kit — the professional series that Mapex introduced as their flagship line for serious drummers seeking both quality and character. The Black Panther's maple/walnut shell construction gives the drums a punchy, focused attack with a natural darkness in the mid-range, well-suited to progressive death metal's dense sonic landscape. The dual bass drum configuration was already a Mario signature by this point. Two 22" x 18" kick drums — played with two independent pedals rather than a double-pedal mechanism — gave him the visual symmetry and physical impact that would become inseparable from the Gojira identity. The deep 18" shells delivered the subsonic low end that Gojira's down-tuned guitars demanded: not just loud, but felt. The four-tom setup — two rack toms and two floor toms — was the same configuration Mario would carry forward into From Mars to Sirius and beyond. Minimalist by death metal standards, it forced creativity within constraints. Rather than filling space with excess hardware, Mario used the available drums melodically, constructing tom patterns that function almost as melodic counterpoints to the guitar riffs. What separates The Link's drum sound from Mario's later work is the room. Recorded in Bayonne without the converted swimming pool acoustics of the From Mars sessions, the kit sounds tighter and more direct — less reverberant, more immediate. This gives The Link a different energy: more claustrophobic, more urgent. ### Power in a Shell: The Black Panther Snare Mario's snare on The Link was a Mapex Black Panther — consistent with the kit brand. The 14" x 6.5" maple shell hit the sweet spot between crack and body, essential for a drummer who needed the snare to register in both quiet atmospheric passages and full-assault death metal sections. The Black Panther snare is known for its rimshot authority — the kind of cutting pop that punches through dense guitar arrangements without requiring EQ assistance. In a recording context where Gojira was still developing their studio approach, having a snare that behaved reliably across dynamic extremes was critical. Mario tuned it on the higher side to maintain articulation. His snare technique — heavy rimshots for accents, ghost notes for texture — was already forming at this stage, and the Black Panther responded to that dynamic range more than a budget snare could. The die-cast hoops added tension consistency and a sharper rimshot definition. These would have been audible advantages in a production environment where the snare needed to carry without post-processing. ### Swiss Precision: Paiste 2002 Series Mario's cymbal choice for The Link — Paiste 2002s — is one of the most telling facts about this period in his career. The 2002 series is a working drummer's cymbal: bright, direct, highly responsive, and built to cut through dense arrangements without requiring a sound engineer's intervention. The 2002s have a fundamentally different character from the Zildjian K Custom Dark cymbals Mario would use on From Mars to Sirius. Where the K Customs are dark, complex, and musical in their overtones, the Paiste 2002s are forward and assertive — they project rather than bloom. On The Link's rawer production, this brightness was an advantage: the cymbals registered clearly in the mix without fighting the guitars. The 14" Sound Edge hi-hats provided the crisp, defined chick that Mario's groove-focused playing required. In complex double-bass passages, hi-hat clarity keeps the listener oriented — and on The Link, that orientation mattered for compositions that were already stretching into progressive territory. The crash selection — 17" and 19" — gave Mario fast response on the 17" for quick accents and a fuller explosion on the 19" for the album's biggest moments. The 2002 series crashes are known for their immediate response: they open instantly rather than building, which suited Gojira's punchy, attack-forward sound at this stage. The 18" China provided the aggressive punctuation that death metal dynamics require. Gojira used China cymbals more prominently in their early work, and on The Link you can hear Mario using it more frequently than on the later, more restrained From Mars sessions. ## Key Facts - Second Gojira album; transitional between Terra Incognita and From Mars to Sirius - Mario's first professional-grade setup: Mapex Black Panther and Paiste 2002 - Recorded and self-produced in Bayonne, France - Establishes the tribal double-bass template Mario would refine on later records - Raw, live-feeling drum sound that complements the album's aggressive energy - Mapex Black Panther: Mario's first serious professional kit - Dual 22" x 18" bass drums — same configuration used through entire career - Maple/walnut shells for punchy attack with natural mid-range darkness - Tighter, more direct room sound compared to the From Mars swimming pool sessions - Estimated kit value: $1,800-2,800 (2003) - Estimated snare value: $250-350 (2003) **Source:** https://metalforge.io/articles/the-link-drum-setup **More LLM resources:** [Site index](/llms.txt) · [Full database](/llms-full.txt) · [Master FAQ](/llms/faq.md) · [Drummer index](/llms/index.md) *Last updated: 2026-06-25 · Source: [MetalForge.io](https://metalforge.io)*