Zeal & Ardor's «Stranger Fruit» celebrates a grandiose love of experimentation
Zeal & Ardor present a powerful work: «Stranger Fruit» is the preliminary realisation of an idea. The album impresses with its immense diversity, although the sound can be reduced to a simple formula.
Zeal & Ardor are currently Switzerland's most successful music export. The story of the project by Swiss-American dual citizen Manuel Gagneux already reads like a myth today: in search of inspiration, the musician ended up in the abyss of the Internet: the forum 4chan. Incompatible genres were sought there. One suggestion for a synthesis: «Black metal and ni***r music.»
Gagneux, a black musician, was at first piqued, then fascinated. What if the slaves in the Southern USA had given themselves not to God but to Satan? He couldn't let go of the idea. He began work on Devil Is Fine and put the demos online. They were discovered by Kim Kelly, a music journalist in the USA. The hype took its course.
Flogging The Borders
That was two years ago now. Gagneux took the demos off the net again, continued to fine-tune the sound and then released the first album, Devil Is Fine, last year. A compilation of nine songs, acclaimed for its uncompromising nature and creativity. In a metal scene plagued by self-referentiality, Zeal & Ardor pushed the boundaries of what was previously possible.
The music press flew in from all over the world for the band's first concert at the Kaserne Basel. It quickly became clear that Zeal & Ardor were not just a bold studio project but also a gripping live band.
Today, Devil Is Fine seems less like an album and more like a demo. A first step in the exploration of what Zeal & Ardor is capable of being. The work is a patchwork of ideas, a sketchbook. The first proper album is called Stranger Fruit and will be released on 8 June 2018.
Soul meets brute force
On Devil Is Fine, songs like Blood In The River or Children's Summon attempted to fuse slave spirituals and black metal. For the most part, however, there was a back-and-forth between the two elements.
On Stranger Fruit, the fusion is seemingly effortless. The concept has been given more space. Zeal & Ardor do not limit themselves to black metal and gospel. Metal, core, blues, soul, Rhythm and Blues, and country noir mingle in a wild maelstrom. The fear that the original idea behind the project would quickly run itself to death: it fades in the face of the 16-track album.
Whereby the number 16 is relativised. Intro, The Hermit, The Solve and Coagula interrupt Stranger Fruit in much the same way as Sacrilegium I-III did on the first album. They are short breaks that also act as mortar between the songs.
It is only with Gravedigger's Chant, the first single, that the fascinating world of Zeal & Ardor begins to unfold. A heavy blues, underpinned with crashing guitars. The song is the first indication that this is not a monotonous metal album.
You Ain't Coming Back is one of the most exciting compositions. Pure R&B soul, the drama of which is emphasised in the chorus by the raw, instrumental violence. Such tightrope walks make Stranger Fruit an exciting adventure.
Danceable Metal
Needless to say, the album offers plenty of fodder for fans of heavy sounds. There is the hellish inferno of Waste—pure and abysmal black metal. Or the groovy Servants, which has already established itself as a concert highlight with its heavy boot stomping. Fire Of Motion and Ship On Fire are also aimed at the hearts of metalheads.
But if there was a prize for the most captivating performance, no song could hold a candle to Row Row. The ritual power of repetition, the desirous rhythm, the rumbling and crashing. Metal has never been more danceable without succumbing to pop.
Wir brauchen Blut für den neuen Gott!
It would be no problem to write a separate article about every single song on Stranger Fruit. Each track is unique, and yet the album seems self-contained and worlds more consistent than Devil Is Fine. This seems paradoxical, but Zeal & Ardor have mastered this immense challenge.
They are now passing the ball to their audience: it is not an easy listening experience. With its presence and diversity, Stranger Fruit demands absolute attention. Even within the songs, the band never lets you relax: We Can't Be Found changes style in practically every verse and even surprises with German lyrics.
Impermanence as a constant
Stranger Fruit is a curious labyrinth in which Zeal & Ardor are always one step ahead. They lurk around the next corner to confront you with another idea. Nothing symbolises this constant of impermanence more than the expectation built up by the epic Coagula as the penultimate track. Followed by what is probably the widest and poppiest song Zeal & Ardor present on the album: the third pre-release single, Built On Ashes.
Based on the simple formula «metal + x», they explore the possibilities of sound. As simple as this may seem, the results of their research are multi-faceted. As a listener, sometimes all you can do is listen in amazement at the risk the band is taking. And it's a relief when you realise that Zeal & Ardor know exactly which walls they can break down. You can always feel the passion - and the will not to rest on their laurels but to push themselves further and further.
What Zeal & Ardor hinted at as a blueprint in Devil Is Fine finds its fulfilment in Stranger Fruit: The experiment is at the centre of their universe.
Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit
Release: 08/06/2018
- Intro
- Gravedigger's Chant
- Servants
- Don't You Dare
- Fire of Motion
- The Hermit
- Row Row
- Ship on Fire
- Waste
- You Ain't Coming Back
- The Foolk
- We Can't Be Found
- Stranger Fruit
- Solve
- Coagula
- Built on Ashes
