IN REVIEW: Zeal & Ardor - S/T

 

In a short handful of years, Manuel Gagneux has firmly established Zeal & Ardor as one of heavy music's most intriguing acts; fusing African American spiritual dirges with incendiary black metal overtones, the project earned impressive amounts of acclaim and attention for their first two records, Devil Is Fine and Stranger Fruit, released in 2016 and 2018 respectively. While working on album three the world was plunged into a raging pandemic and, in the U.S., the Black Lives Matter movement was thrust to the forefront of discussion after yet another tragic murder of a Black man by police. In the fall of 2020, Zeal & Ardor dropped Wake of a Nation, a brief EP in lieu of the third album instead representing an immediate response to the events surrounding George Floyd's death. It also represented a stylistic contrast from previous material by rooting its themes in current events rather than recalling the dark era of slavery. It also featured Vigil, an utterly crushing dirge that relied on emotional weight rather than a guttural metal attack to do its damage.

Self-titling a record implies a reset, but that's not entirely true with the third Zeal & Ardor album. Much of the music here feels like a natural progression, and its songs to bear some of the sonic hallmarks that have made their music so recognizable, but there are also serious branching out into new ideas, styles and moods. That, and Vigil's atmospheric brilliance finds its way into some of the new material as well.

Looking at the six singles paints a fairly accurate picture of the genre-hopping that takes place on this record; Run is an absolute punisher, chopped-up vocal samples and stabbing guitars punctuating the violence while occasionally exploding into furious bursts of aggression. Erase strikes more of a balance, juxtaposing gentle guitar flourishes with pummeling black metal riffage while offering a varied vocal from Gagneux, while Bow more closely recalls earlier material but sprinkles some fuzzy industrial bass into its dirge to provide a slow, dense headbanger. Gotterdammerung feels like a classic thrash throwback when it's not incorporating a choir on its psychedelic-leaning chorus or a throat-scratching black metal tour de force vocal in its verses. Golden Liar, like Vigil, is a dark and dreary dirge, owing influence to Ennio Morricone and building slowly in intensity. Then, there's Church Burns, which opts for a more simplified approach in its attack, utilizing the chains that often acted as percussion throughout their early career and transitioning into to a thundering, bluesy chorus before shifting back and forth between these styles.

These ambitions aren't exclusive to the singles, either; instrumental Emersion sets its tone with chilled-out electronic textures that war throughout with the metallic onslaught that threatens periodically. Death To the Holy takes you through a very thorough Zeal & Ardor experience, featuring most of the band's sonic colours over the course of its whirlwind three minutes. Feed the Machine ratchets up the industrial influence while pretty much going full metalcore at points. I Caught You even sneaks in some nu-metal and shoegaze among its fleeting and disparate sections. Down the stretch is where the album gets most adventurous, veering from the soulful Hold Your Head Low through the quick, jazzy J-M-B (Jazz Metal Blues, which goes punk/thrash on the chorus) and the sombre, synth-lead closing instrumental A-H-I-L (All Hope Is Lost), which sort of acts as the bookend to the fuzzed-out Nine Inch Nails-leaning album intro.

With so many disparate motifs appearing throughout, it should come as no surprise that Zeal & Ardor doesn't offer such a consistent listen, even if Gagneux's blood-curdling screams and abrasive guitar work are present, at least in part, on most songs. However, this stellar third effort improves on the first two by virtue of this exploratory nature, its deviations from any perceived formula pulling in any and all directions. So many of these excursions are successful in their intent that this album ends up pulling off a rare feat; although it reaches out so broadly for new sonic territory, the guts and heart remain the same. No matter what ingredients they use, these songs are undeniably Zeal & Ardor creations, undeniably interesting, and undeniably thrilling.

February 11, 2022 • Redacted/MVKA

Highlights Death To the Holy • Golden Liar • Church Burns