![]() ![]() The same can be said of “Church Burns.” The song itself is a stomping, heavy blues rocker with strong gospel overtones. As is often the case with this record, the gospel influence is at stark odds with the anti-religion lyrical content. It’s that soulful side of Zeal and Ardor, though, that creates one of the most interesting and powerful tracks on the album, “Death to the Holy.” The song starts with the feel of an African-American spiritual with claps and call-and-response vocals, but it very quickly takes a darker turn as a heavy guitar comes in and Manuel Gagneux shifts to a more sinister whisper before rising to a scream for the title line in the chorus. ![]() If that moment doesn’t get your pulse up and your head banging, you probably shouldn’t call yourself a metal fan. The kicker comes at the end of the chorus, when he screams “GOTTERDAMMERUNG” and the song explodes back into that opening riff. For the chorus, things mellow out a bit and Gagneux shifts to English and shows his more soulful side. The production on Zeal and Ardor is greatly improved over their past records, and the songs just hit harder for me, even though in many cases they’re perhaps a little less heavy.īut let’s start on the heavy end with the song that probably comes closest to that black-metal label, “Gotterdammerung.” The tune kicks off with an absolute banger of a head-bobbing riff before Zeal and Ardor frontman Manuel Gagneux rips through German verses in the expected rasp. I think they’ve found their stride on this one, though. The songs that I liked, I really liked, but there were quite a few skips for me, too. But I kind of felt like their past albums were hit and miss. ![]() I love to find bands who are doing unique things, and I discovered Zeal and Ardor with their 2019 album Stranger Fruit, which I enjoyed quite a bit. But there’s so much more at play here, including blues, soul and, strangely enough, a heavy gospel influence. There are elements of the music present, certainly, with occasional buzzing guitars and screams, and there’s the general disdain for religion that permeates black-metal lyrics. In fact, I wouldn’t call them black metal at all, but that seems to be the general consensus. There are plenty of exceptions, but none quite as exceptional as Zeal and Ardor. Yes, I know that’s a broad generalization of the genre and not truly representative of everything it contains, but that’s what immediately comes to mind. I expect songs that are linear with little melody and certainly nothing so mundane as a chorus or hook. I imagine an album that sounds like it was captured on a shoebox recorder in someone’s basement, guitars that sound like angry bees and a guy in corpse paint screaming in an incoherent rasp about Satan. The label conjures up a certain stereotype, I suppose, that just doesn’t appeal to me. When a band gets classified as black metal, that’s usually going to be a hard pass. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |