Zeal & Ardor - ‘GRIEF’ review
Zeal & Ardor
As summer draws to a close, and students like myself are thrown right back into mountains of coursework, homework, and exam prep work, some fresh new music is a much-needed reprieve. ‘Fresh’ is certainly one way I would describe Zeal & Ardor’s fourth full-length album, GREIF. The Swiss band have absolutely outdone themselves: this has only been my introduction to the treasure trove of new and inventive music produced by the six-piece, but I am sure to stick around to take in everything they have to offer in the future. GREIF is a refreshing, fourteen-track-long blend of American Rock, black metal, and African-American spirituals. The most intense and heavily-involved output from Zeal & Ardor to-date, GREIF throws you headfirst into a dynamic, cinematic world of mystery, intrigue, and anger.
Drawing reference to the Basel tradition of the Vogel Gryff, from which this album gets its name, track one—‘the Bird, the Lion, and the Wildikin’—is the perfect introduction to GREIF. Its composition lends well to its traditional ties: the rhythmic drum beat of a marching band, accompanied by a chorus of angelic vocalisations, contrasts well with the sudden intensity of Zeal & Ardor’s introductory instrumental on the album. Frontman Manuel Gagneux’s dark, alluring vocals are the perfect taster of the shocking range about to grace your ears: offering a taste, just easing you into the variety of sounds that await in later tracks.
‘Fend You Off’ comes in with a surprisingly gentle glockenspiel introduction, reminiscent of a music box, which periodically reclaims the song between its heavy instrumentals. Gagneux describes this song as “swallowing your tongue up until the moment you can’t do it anymore,” and this shines through in the conflicting instrumentals—they fight for dominance with one another, culminating in an aggressively tremendous bridge with a shift in vocal tone that feels like one final biting remark before an argument peters out.
Following this is the funky, darkly rhythmic ‘Kilonova’. Its creeping tone and hissed vocals bring my mind back to the base concept of this album—the Vogel Gryff, and the part-snake GREIF.
Track four, ‘are you the only one now?’, is the most accurate musical portrayal of anxiety that I think I have ever encountered. This is certainly one of the slower songs on the album: for much of its duration. The gentle, monotonous tone with which Gagneux accompanies the acoustic instrumentals of the song’s verses bears a series of instructions on how to keep oneself as invisible and unintrusive as possible. It is an unfortunately familiar set of commandments: the repetitive, titular mantra, “are you the only one now?”, speaks of the narrator feeling entirely alone, whilst simultaneously feeling as though they are under constant supervision “from those who pass and hark”. “are you the only one now?” hikes up the dynamic in its final third, introducing more of those killer black metal influences that Zeal & Ardor are known for—in spite of the song’s hitherto quiet, sombre mood, this sudden shift does not feel out of place. Rather, it reflects the intensity with which these thoughts and tendencies can sometimes overtake you—all-consuming.
‘Go home my friend’ is the track in which we really get to appreciate the instrumental work of the band as a whole. With Lukas Kurmann on bass leading the song’s gritty tone, and Marco Von Allmen accompanying on drums, this song switches things up by exchanging the vocal complexity present in the previous entries with a chorus of ascending, retro-esque synths. “Go home my friend” comes across as one of the more distinctly ‘rock’ songs among the sea of metal.
The same cannot be said for the following piece, ‘Clawing Out’, which perfectly summarises the spiritual, Satanic influences that predate Zeal & Ardor’s inception. Upon hearing this song for the first time, I felt genuine apprehension—its intermittent tempo shifts and growling vocals is like giving chase, while the rhythmic pounding of drums and synthesisers has me torn between the pounding of my own heart and the thumping footfalls of something in pursuit. The entire track feels like something is trying to ‘claw’ its way out of the deepest depths of Hell: put simply, it is good, and unique.
‘Disease’ takes a step back, leaning more into the band’s rock influences and away from the dark, spiritual metal. It is the perfect breather to contrast the intensity of the last track: the same can be said for ‘369’, though in a distinctly different way. ‘369’ leans further into the spiritualism, building its 55-second runtime on harmonising vocals, a synthetic drum beat, and the natural sounds of a night-time forest.
‘Thrill’ is the sort of song that would fit right into the soundtrack of an action-adventure television series—it’s a high-octane song. Zeal & Ardor have a well-evolved understanding of when to let both the vocals and the instruments shine through: once again, this song ties-in those heavy metal influences for an instrumental bridge. Much the opposite, ‘une ville vide’ has its classic roots in iconically 1980s-esque synthesisers. Entirely instrumental, the tenth track on GREIF is like a title track to a Henson Co. dark fantasy.
The chugging bass and scratchy, harmonic guitar of ‘Sugarcoat’ should be an immediate green flag for the artistic image of Zeal & Ardor. Those beloved death- and black-metal influences come back in full force for a deep, guttural growl in place of a chorus. In ways, I would say that this track reminds me somewhat of the industrial rock of the early 1990s. The harmonisation of the guitar to Gagneux’s vocals is a phenomenal choice, creating this inhuman undertone to his singing.
If I had to pick one song on this album to denote as the ‘best’, it would be the twelth track: ‘Solace’. Drawing you in with a minor piano melody and Gagneux’s smooth, dangerous crooning, this enchanting track is seductive. Like, James Bond, secret agent, gunfight-in-a-smoky-bar-seductive. Only at the very end does the instrumental pick up. As morbid as it is, my first thought when it came to the instrumental of this song—with its sultry yet tentative piano, leading into the intense, crescendo of metal—and the mysterious, foreboding lyrics—There is solace and hope in the end of your rope…do you think it painless? —was that of suicide. Mysterious and foreboding, ‘Solace’ lulls you into a false sense of security before throwing you head-first into these heart-pumping, ground-thumping drum beats and frantic picking. It is, to me, a moment of decision: like standing on the edge of a roof and thinking, finally, is this it?
My absolute adoration for ‘Solace’ does not at all subtract from my enjoyment of the final two tracks: ‘Hide in Shade’ and ‘to my ilk’. ‘Hide in Shade’ is the best of both worlds—a perfect example of how this band has mastered the combination of classic American funk-rock and black metal. Neither genre is laid on too thick in the mix, blending seamlessly into one another between verse and chorus, a brilliant blend of human percussion and bitter electric strings. In yet another sudden tone shift, ‘to my ilk’ is atmospheric and gentle: like daylight dappling your face in the early morning. Gagneux himself regards this as ‘the softest record [they have] put out thus far”, and is “really happy with it”. I can see why. While ‘to my ilk’ is incredibly distinct from even the softest tracks on this album, with its softer edge and (marginally) more hopeful lyrics, this only serves to make it the perfect concluder.
Zeal & Ardor have found their place now among my favourite contemporary artists. GREIF is a culmination of the band’s progressively developing skills, showcasing the best that they have to offer—an unexpectedly bad-ass mix of wildly different genres, appealing to a wide variety of tastes, and offering a big middle finger to the genre-elitists that frequent these musical communities.
GREIF from Zeal & Ardor is out now and available on all good streaming platforms.
