His musical ability is not just confined to any of the genres the band takes inspiration from, best displayed by the techno heavy Sacreligium trio of interludes on the group’s first album. While Zeal & Ardour is referred to as a band, Gagneux is functionally the only one actually making the music. He had extensive musical expertise beforehand, and is an experienced multi-instrumentalist. Gagneux didn’t simply wake up one day and decide to make this band. I think a lot of the strength in this music comes not only from the interesting premise, but the skillful execution. A sentiment so arresting when repeated throughout the song, that it sometimes makes Manuel himself cry while performing the song. As the last song on their latest album, Built on Ashes acts as the current ending to this story, reminding the audience that “you are bound to die alone”. Because through the rage and the blood, you have tracks like Built on Ashes that are steeped in an undying, depressive miasma. But there’s also an implication that for these slaves, the arrangement is merely trading one master for another. I can’t help but imagine a horror/thriller starring vengeful slaves and their new demonic allies burning through their chains and the people who chained them. It might just be my imagination, but this music tells a very interesting story. But if you have a thing for the macabre, or just want to hear something completely new, you know where to go. So if you’re strongly religious, or have an aversion for the occult, maybe you won’t be too big a fan of Zeal. This resulted in 8 fans actually agreeing to be branded with the band’s logo. Even away from the music, the band offered to brand some of its fans in a social experiment. Not to talk of the track Blood in The River which begins with chants of “A good god is a dead one” and “a good lord is a dark one”, leading to the promise that “the river bed will run red with the blood of the saints and the blood of the holy”. And on the satanic end of things you even have their first Album and its title track, Devil is FIne. It’s also featured heavily in the track Ship On Fire. That is a latin chant taken from ‘The Book of Abramelin’, a text which has influenced a lot of ceremonial black magic. And as the premise for the band implies, their music gets pretty satanic at times. Blues-like singing can give way to enraged commands at any moment, and it keeps you guessing. And these emotions are delivered tenfold by Gagneux. Hope and melancholy are traded for despair and rage. However, Zeal provides the opposite side of that coin. Slaves often channeled their emotions into gospel/spiritual music, attempting to find salvation in the religion given to them in the west. The inherent rage stemming from American chattel slavery mixes perfectly with the aggression that metal specialises in. Honestly, this music makes me wonder why nobody has made something like it before. So when their music starts incorporating the textbook metal screaming and heavy guitar riffs, it congeals into a sound that’s hard to pull yourself away from. Communicated through the sheer majesty of Manuel’s vocals. Gravedigger’s chant is more on the blues/folk side of Zeal’s style, and lacks the usual aggression expected from metal. And there’s something arresting about hearing these chants synced to music. The repetition there, the language used, like addressing the listener as “child”, along with Gagneux’s solemn delivery, instantly brings up slave imagery if you have ever heard of slave songs in your life. “Bring the dead man’s shoes to the seashore, childīring the dead man’s shoes to the seashore, child
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