UMUR "Zeal & Ardor" is the first demo recording by Swiss/US metal act Zeal & Ardor and it was independently released as a digital demo album in June 2014. Mainman behind the project Manuel Gagneux was born in Basel, Switzerland but moved to New York in his early twenties and started chamber pop group Birdmask. Zeal & Ardor was originally just meant to be a fun side-project for Gagneux, but it soon grew so popular that it became his main project.

Gagneux recorded all instruments and vocals on the demo (including programming the drums). Featuring 10 tracks and a total playing time of 24:57 it´s a bit short to be called an album release, but also a bit long to be labelled a demo, so demo album is probably a valid description of the release.

Other than a few places, you wouldn´t think of this release as a demo if you listened to it though, and it´s actually a bit hard to understand why Gagneux has made it an effort to disassociate himself from it or at least make it very hard for his fans to listen to it. Especially considering that the material featured on the demo is exclusive to this release. I could understand it if the quality of the material or the sound production values were sub par, but that´s not th case at all. This is a very well sounding release.

Stylistically Gagneux aimed at creating a project which combined African-American spirituals (slave songs) with black metal, but there is also an electronic music element in the music of Zeal & Ardor as well as nods toward industrial rock/metal, and soul and blues. It´s just a huge melting pot of different music styles and influences and somehow Gagneux makes it work. His soulful and expressive clean vocals are powerful and pleasant, and his extreme metal vocals are decent too. Honestly the black metal sections and influences on this release are relatively limited and you could probably play a good deal of this release to most people without them noticing the extreme metal element. So it´s not an "in your face" type aggression that Gagneux have built into his music, but a more subtle and often melodic black metal influence.

As written above this is a high quality demo release in terms of production values, performances, and also when it comes to the varied songwriting. Maybe a little more of a red thread through the compositions is lacking, but it´s nothing serious and this is still a very interesting first release from Zeal & Ardor. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy African American music generally speaking has staunchly and proudly distanced itself from the greater rock universe ever since Jimi Hendrix met his untimely passing. For whatever reason despite the genre having branched off of the greater African American blues guitar tree, the majority of black music has been concentrated into hip hop, R&B, funk or dance pop. There are exceptions of course such as Fishbone, Living Color and even Tina Turner and when it comes to the world of metal music, it has remained woefully free of our black brothers and sisters with only a smattering of bands that have dared enter this loud and proud descendent of the greater rock music universe.

There have been a few of course ranging from the pioneering Black Death all the way back in 1977 to bands like Sound Barrier but for the most part these bands featured black members interpreting white music forms rather than incorporating the African-American musical experience into their music. It took a few decades but in comes Swiss born Manuel Gagneux also known as Birdmask associated more with chamber pop rather than anything in the metal universe but once challenged to create a musical form that was as far ranging as possible, the answer was quite simple: why not do the unthinkable by fusing black metal with African American traditional forms of music like gospel, soul and spirituals? The world would never be the same.

The solo project ZEAL AND ARDOR emerged which took the primary black music experience of gospel, soul and R&B and merged it with the metal universe. The eponymously titled demo emerged in 2014 and caught the world’s attention for the sheer audacity of taking metal into a completely unthinkable fusion of stylistic approaches. The project quickly became a full band and with the release of the band’s debut “Devil Is Fine” the new ZEAL AND ARDOR showcased a bizarre mix of African American spirituals, work songs and ambient electronica with black metal. While the project was lauded as the most creative example of metal’s adaptability, it was also panned as lacking any sense of cohesion and sounding more like a series of music samples.

It’s been six years and two albums since ZEAL AND ARDOR debuted and it’s safe to say they have ironed out any kinks that had prevented their initial project from that polished perfection that many an artist strives to achieve. The release of the band’s third album, also eponymously titled ( i hate when they do that! ), Gagneux and his buddies have finally gotten a serious grasp on their bizarre mishmash of musical styles with an album that showcases a sound that has matured into a true avant-metal powerhouse. While still rooted in the concept of a faux history where African slaves revolted against their Christian masters and turned to Satanism, the musical journey on this one incorporated the band’s usual black metal meets African American spirituals but also adds healthy doses of industrial rock, blues rock and metalcore. Also present are moments of post-rock, classical music and alternative rock.

This has been a band that has always sounded good on paper but has never caught my interest in the delivery system however with the eponymously titled third ZEAL AND ARDOR album i can honestly say that this album works like a charm and although coming off as some sort of neo nu metal album at times especially during the Korn-esque power chord stomps, the album offers an interesting variety of disparate and oft opposing stylistic approaches that transition seamlessly and graced with a lush production that both accentuates the subtle sounds of a classic pop standard while allowing the uglier metal distortion to rage on through. The strength of this album is in how the tracks are vary sufficiently to stand on their own.

“Götterdämmerung” is perhaps my favorite track of all with its melodic death metal angst mixed with Tool-esque alt metal on overdrive with a black spiritual choir backing it up with transitions to neo-soul and electronica. The entire album flies by rather quickly and while many will cry foul and whine that “this ain’t metal!” i can assure you that the metal aspects are quite genuine and performed in fully fueled angst. Sure the metal aspects are only an ingredient to this creative tapestry of genres but that’s really what much avant-metal is about these days. Probably not for everyone but this third release from ZEAL AND ARDOR works quite well for my ears. It seems like this band has come of age thus displaying the bizarre nature of the never-ending metal hybrids that show no signs of keeping the metal spirit alive.