Something stirred the day Manuel Gagneux used his laptop to sketch out the first bars of what would ultimately become Zeal & Ardor. The entity, unknowingly birthed, would take control of his life and blaze an uncharted course through the world of rock and metal.

Gagneux’s vicious concoction of black metal and African American spirituals immediately spoke to a new generation of heavy music lovers and garnered attention beyond metal’s bubble. In a genre obsessed with labels and driven by tradition, Zeal & Ardor was – and still is – indefinable. A small spark caught fire, and Gagneuax saw his project manifested to live audiences across the world, supporting the likes of Baroness, Deafheaven, Meshuggah, Mastodon and Opeth.

“It’s been ridiculous, man,” Gagneux said about the project’s journey so far. “It's such a blur that I couldn't really pinpoint when that happened. The last seven years I've been yelling at people, basically. I can't tell you where, when, but I've been yelling at more people gradually. The yell-ees have grown. [laughs]”

 

What makes Zeal & Ardor so special is their uncanny ability to channel their already stellar material into a jaw-dropping live spectacle. Five darkened figures, obscured by a menacing light show, standing in a row while chanting field hollers over stomping drums and aggressive guitars. This entity feasted on unsuspecting audiences, making fans and gaining power in real time night after night.

Through it all, Gagneux was the driving creative force. He’s written every note and played almost every instrument on Zeal & Ardor’s three studio records. But for their fourth and latest album, GREIF, he realized this entity had evolved beyond his own purview. The five musicians he’d been sharing his life with – guitarist Tiziano Volante, drummer Marco Von Allmen, bassist Lukas Kurmann, and backing vocalists Denis Wagner and Marc Orbist – were influencing this force as well.

GREIF is the first Zeal & Ardor album written and recorded as a full band. It introduces more voices that have been living, breathing and sleeping this project for years, and have helped shape it into the live juggernaut it’s become. The result is a bolder and richer Zeal & Ardor that continues to stretch the fabric of its sound, while only just scratching the surface on the next chapter of the band.

“These are people who gave seven years of their lives basically to my stupid little idea.” Gagneux said about why he wanted to involve them in the process. “It’s only fair to have them partake in whatever we do. Also, Zeal & Ardor is at its best – for me, at least – when we play live, and that is in no small part due to them.

“So I’m just exploiting them more,” he said with his trademark sardonic grin.

Manifested Into Existence

Zeal & Ardor can be considered a tulpa, of sorts. A being materialized from thought forms, intense concentration and spiritual practices. Something once only imagined made real.

Gagneux caught the imaginations of listeners because of a unique experiment based on a simple question: what would it sound like if American slaves had turned to Satanism rather than Christianity, the religion of their oppressors?

That ethos informed 2016’s Devil is Fine – later re-released by MVKA in 2017 –  and opened up a new musical palette fusing soul, gospel and black metal with electronic touches and interludes. It pissed off metal purists and black metal elitists alike, which delighted Gagneux.

 Before long, this thing that only existed on a computer became much larger than its original one-man host. It strengthened to encompass a touring band, crew, management and promoters, and legions of fans expanding with every show. It earned attention from The Independent, Rolling Stone, and Noisey, while people branded its logo into their flesh.

 

 

“[Zeal & Ardor] just kind of grew from a file on my laptop, to something that is encompassing me, to something that is encompassing these friends that I travel the world and yell at people with,” Gagneux said. “It's so holistic in that it shapes all of our lives – whether we like it or not – that it just doesn't make sense for me to say this is just my thing. That's a fucking lie.”

It’s why he felt compelled to give his friends a chance to get more involved with the thing that changed his life, because it’s changed theirs as well. As an artist who’s constantly trying to do something different and hates repeating himself, Gagneux wanted his friends to give Zeal & Ardor a fresh perspective.

 “I think that's a that's a very fucking important thing, because when I write a song and I just brood over it for too long, it just kind of loses its initial meaning,” Gagneux said. “It's Styrofoam in the end. Really well produced Styrofoam. It doesn't really give you anything, and sometimes it's worth putting it out there raw a little. I think that's what we did here.

 “I was kind of scared, to be honest, to open this up,” he admitted. “I thought it would be a really hard process, but the minute they started playing in the studio I just realized, ‘Oh shit. This is going to be way better if I don't do this alone.’ For instance, Tiziano came in and he just betterified every fucking line I wrote. I tried to be offended by it, but I was kind of amazed. I failed to be pissed.”

Always Taking the Riskier Path

GREIF is, in a lot of ways, a much calmer album than any of its predecessors. Not that Zeal & Ardor has lost its edge, to which songs like “Sugarcoat”, “Thrill” or “Hide in Shade” will attest. But they play with mood even more so than before, such as the buttery lead single “to my ilk” or the slow build of the explosive “are you the only one now.”

“It's heavy in different ways,” Gagneux said. “I would say more emotionally heavy. There's actually heavy tracks, but there's also super soft tracks on it. I see it like tapas, you know? It's like, you have little flavors you can mix and match.”

“It’s way more a rock album than a metal album,” he continued. “It’s way more playful. The other records are very imposing. This is us, and this is a movement, and don't you dare do this,” he says, wagging his figure and imitating some authoritative automaton. “[GREIF] is just more of a personal thing. It seems the scale is smaller, and I think that was kind of unexpected for it to turn out like that and, to be honest… kind of scary.”

 

GREIF is not an immediate album, but it may be Zeal & Ardor’s most musically diverse. It takes time for the songs to trickle through and sink their teeth into your brain. Without realizing it, the glockenspiel of “Fend You Off” or the chanting refrain of “Go home my friend” become your subconscious soundtrack. “Disease” and “Thrill” offer such an infectious groove that it’s nearly impossible to sit still through them without shaking your hips.

Though it’s apparent throughout the album that this is a different flavor of Zeal & Ardor, it also feels like the first step in an entirely new and exciting chapter. That the entity will further evolve as the collaboration does, continuing to bring limitless possibilities.

“We're kind of elbowing more room and more colors and more emotions. You know, there's goofy songs on this record. Like, legit goofy and fun and we’ve never allowed ourselves to be fun. But you see me, I'm not the most serious guy in the world, right? It just feels more honest, and I think for better or for worse, it's a good thing.

“Also keeping in mind that we have to play [these songs] for two years,” he said with a laugh.

The biggest pratfall Gagneux is trying to avoid is writing the same thing over and over again. As long as the band is taking risks, he’s fine if GREIF brings some fans to lament the halcyon days of Stranger Fruit.

“I mean, those albums already exist,” he said. “We could easily do Devil Is Fine fuckin’ Tokyo Drift, but we would become our own cover band, in a way. And I'm not going to knock that, because it works well for bands and there's nothing to hate about that. But I think I would personally not have a good time, and I also probably wouldn't write honest music. You would hear as a listener that it's kind of phoned in, because I'm not feeling it.”

‘This is so much fun and I don’t know how we deserve it’

The appreciation Gagneux has for his bandmates is palpable. They’ve weathered endless travel miles, sickness, incredible shows, terrible shows, new songs, new fans and new opportunities while all the while becoming closer than ever. They’re family now.

It’s something he knows is extremely rare.

“It's so weird, because in every parallel universe something would have gone wrong,” he said of how well the six of them have worked. “But by sheer luck, these people are just… we kind of like each other! We know each other well enough to not piss each other off.

“Like, we're going to go have a gig in three days, and I’m giddy like a fucking school girl. I want to see my friends and we're going to go to France, and we'll eat and it'll be fun, and we'll scream at people! It's such a fucking luxury, man. This sounds very unmetal, but this is so much fun and I don't know how we deserve it.”

They deserve it because Gagneux, Volante, Von Allmen, Kurmann, Orbist and Wagner have nurtured an idea that speaks to people, and those people have paid them back in kind.

 

Zeal & Ardor will get the chance to unleash itself across North America supporting their new album this fall alongside Gaerea, who themselves are releasing a creatively divergent record this year. Gagneux noted a bit of irony in the booking given how talented that band is. 

“Gaerea is special because I know for a fact they're an amazing live band and they'll make us work,” he said. “We used to be the opener that kind of gave the main act a run for their money. Now we're in trouble, and I love that. [laughs] They're scary good, and it's amazing.”

By then, the new album will be released and the anxiety of waiting around for people to hear it will be gone and Gagneux will be able to breathe a little easier.

“I'm not even nervous about something specific [about the album’s release],” he said. “It's just  the not knowing. That big question mark of that void of potential, whatever it may be. I think that's just the unnerving thing. Even if everyone hates it, at least I know.“

Odds are high that won’t be the case. Zeal & Ardor got to where they are by following their own path and by not sounding like anyone else. They found an audience that craves something different and should be poised to follow the shifting and morphing of the entity they love. Because no one, not even the members in the band, know where Zeal & Ardor is going to creatively go next, and that’s what is – and always has been – so exciting about them.

“It's important that it's a question. At least we fucking pose it, you know? Because I think it would be easy just to regurgitate and just kind of reiterate and cover ourselves. And maybe this will be our Lulu and we'll never talk about it again,” he said with a smirk.

GREIF by Zeal & Ardor is now available - HERE

See Zeal & Ardor on tour as the band campaign live for the remainder of the year. Zeal & Ardor are currently trekking across Europe and will touch down in the UK later next month. From there, the band begins a North American tour with support from black metal progressives Gaerea and otherworldly mystics, Zetra. See the complete list of dates and cities below. Get tickets - HERE