PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
MVKA welcome new signing ZEAL & ARDOR.
Imagine this: Tarantino’s Django sacrifices a goat on stage while intimidating slave chants roar and screeching guitar riffs burn in the background. Then the rhythmic chain rattling evoking a satanic summoning makes way for the eerily familiar melodies of Norwegian black metal. This genre mix that has been garnering attention online since April 2016 belongs to Zeal & Ardor.
The forthcoming album ‘Devil Is Fine’ – set for release February 24, 2017 – thematically revolves around more typical black metal fare – rituals, human sacrifice, fire, and blood. Zeal & Ardor take the blaspheme up a notch by delivering the lyrics in the fashion of slave spirituals sung by chain gangs. Black metal from the cotton fields.
Zeal & Ardor is the one-man brainchild of Swiss-American musician Manuel Gagneux. His approach draws on an alternate history and stems from two thoughts: Christianity was imposed upon American slaves (just as it was imposed in Norway) and black metal in the ‘90s grew as a rebellion to monotheism. What would have happened if American slaves had rebelled in the same way? Or put bluntly: what would satanic spirituals sound like?
The double first single, which includes album title track ‘Devil Is Fine’ and ‘Children’s Summon’, is set for release in Europe on November 11. Pre-orders for the ‘Devil Is Fine’ album, described by Noisey as “one of the year’s most intriguing”, launch the same day.
Listen to the title track at: https://soundcloud.com/mvka/01-devil-is-fine/s-ruxbq.
Gagneux comments, “Devil Is Fine was not created thinking that this many would ever hear it. There is no stylistic compromise or pandering on it. Only things I personally like.”
Zeal & Ardor intend to bring the live experience to Europe in Spring 2017. When asked earlier this year by toiletovhell.com about performing live, Gagneux commented, “I’d really like it to be somewhere between a concert and a seriously f*cked up play. Not just something people haven’t heard before, but something people have never seen before, leaving them frightened, weak, and loving it. That is the thing I’m currently striving for.” The following dates are now on sale:
14.04.2017 – CH – Basel, Czar Fest
19.04.2017 – FR – Paris, Backstage By The Mill
20.04.2017 – UK – London, Underworld
21.04.2017 – NL – Tilburg, Roadburn Festival
22.04.2017 – DE – Berlin, Urban Spree
24.04.2017 – CZ – Prague, Roxy
25.04.2017 – PL – Warsaw, Hydrozagadka
26.04.2017 – GR – Athens, Kyttaro
03.05.2017 – IT – Milano, Lo Fi Club
04.05.2017 – CH – Geneva, Usine
