Zeal & Ardor - Devil Is Fine

Of all the albums that have been released this year (back in 2017), this is the one I have been the most excited to write about. If you’re the kind of person who hates Deafheaven because they’re “pussy shit” and not “real” black metal or pissed that they got big (relatively speaking) before Wolves in the Throne Room, you probably won’t like this. If you’ve seen Zeal & Ardor as another gimmicky black metal band, if you have indeed caught the buzz circling this new project, and despised that on principle, it’s not going to win your heart back enough for you to not shit-talk it on the Facebook comments on Blabbermouth.

Zeal & Ardor has been getting all sorts of attention lately from all the people and publications you would expect to give a new experimental black metal project their attention in this post-Sunbather era of atmospheric black metal. And initially I was resistant to the hype because so much of it was focused on the gimmicky appeal of the project; I imagined just some cliché trendy blackgaze with some poorly blended trans-genre quirks thrown into the mix for “eccentricity”, as has been the case with a lot of “unique” projects of this type. But looking back there really is no way to discuss Zeal & Ardor without talking about how different their sound is because it really is unlike anything else in black metal right now and actually expands atmospheric black metal into new territory instead of just throwing another set of new musical qualities onto the pile of other genres with which black metal is being mixed with varying success. And Devil Is Fine is actually a surprisingly masterfully emotionally and stylistically dynamic effort for a debut album (yes, for me, the adverb overload is necessary).

The blend of black metal, blues, African-American spiritual folk music, some electronic music, and a vast variety of other musical characteristics on Devil Is Fine is what both makes it sound like a bad idea and what proves itself to be brilliant when you realize how well it works. To get into the meat of Manuel Gagneux’s very short (25 minutes-long) debut LP is a real task because, as cohesive as it is, each track showcases a totally different permutation of the aforementioned ingredients, which ultimately leads to it not really resembling a full-blooded black metal project at all (rather, taking distinct influence from and selling itself to the world of atmospheric black metal). Those critical of Hunter Hunt Hendrix’s use, or misuse depending on who you ask, of black metal to intensify Liturgy’s music would probably be warry of the prospect by which Gagneux has made use of black metal as well. However, Devil Is Fine does not at all resemble the uneasy and somewhat off-putting mixed bag that Aesthethicais. In fact, it does a better job at achieving what so many bands set out to do with black metal, with less black metal. I blasted and headbanged (and danced my ass off) to “Blood in the River” alone more than I did to numerous Dimmu Borgir, Darkthrone, and even Watain albums, and I felt a more complete atmosphere summoned around me by the 25 minutes of this album than I felt as a result of listening to an hour of one of Varg’s dark ambient albums or even the higher-tier Explosions in the Sky albums or even the legendary Neurosis’ recent shit.

It’s probably easiest to approach discussing this thing in a piece by piece manner since there are only nine tracks and each is its own weird packet of goodness. The album starts with the title track, which serves as a nice introductory mood-setter with its soulfully harmonized and highly distorted spiritual refrains and sweetly meditative choral vocals and stringed orchestration peppered with singular percussive and piano accents with only a few short bursts of metallic tom-drumming; the first track of the project is almost completely devoid of any black metal musical quality. As strange as it might seem for such a short and diverse album to have an “intro track” I think “Devil Is Fine” does a fine job of presenting what the album is going to be all about without giving it all away in the trailer, and setting the ambience early. “In Ashes”, though, brings the black metal sound to the front immediately with the lo-fi tremolo guitar picking covering the whole song, harkening back to very early 80’s black metal, and sustaining the spiritual atmosphere with the distorted chants whose minimally kick-drum-backed instrumental breaks into familiar black metal screaming, double bass drum firing, and snare smashing (though more like a march beat than a blast beat) and recedes back and forth into ambience in a way that assures no boredom sets in. “Sacrilegium I” rounds off the first third of the album with an off-kilter curveball in its own light, a dance-y electronic track that could be treated as somewhat of an interlude that samples a few manipulated vocals and sort of catches its audience off guard after the most black metal track on the album. Zeal & Ardor sustain the album’s momentum and atmosphere on this track but leave no time for anyone listening to get too settled into comfort with just one style and this third track works the combination of drum and bass and the chants nicely for the short time it does.

“Come on Down” brings back the distorted soulful vocals with extra range and the metal instrumentation back with extra melody. The tremolo picking is more dynamic and clear and is accompanied by some sweet licks and tapping that sound like they’d be right at home on a Queensrÿche album. It doesn’t bring too much to the table that “In Ashes” didn’t already, but it comes at the style combination from a different angle that helps to diversify the application of the soulful group vocals that fill up the album. An instantly anticipatory xylophone melody ushers in immediate hair-raising on the next song, which takes little time to dive into its very melodic death metal, early In Flames-esque, instrumental backing, pulling it back for the most awesome choral chanting and low-timbre drumming syncopation I could ask for. This song is both massively meditative and profoundly physically moving. The hand-off from xylophone, the very fast guitars and blast beats, and the cathedral-worthy mantra is absolutely phenomenal and inspirational, and it makes “Children’s Summon” my favorite song on the album. “Sacrilegium II” brings the album back down from its ethereal ascendance with a lullaby-like xylophone interlude that calms as much as an actual lullaby would and haunts with the subtlety of many a Steven Wilson project, and thankfully so because the album wastes no time picking back up the intensity right afterwards.

“Blood in the River” starts off with more soulful group singing and thundering bass drums foreshadowing a similarly anthemic climax that is realized with full black metal force and infectious harmonized refrains “A good god is a dead one, a good god is the one that brings the star” and “The river bed will run red with the blood of the saints and the blood of the holy.” Good GOD those refrains are so catchy I had to type them out; just try to listen to this song without joining in with the chorus and headbanging to what you will realize is less dense, but no less cultish, black metal riffing and shrieking than what is on just about any other black metal album, and the metallic instrumentals get their time to shine by themselves too. This one is definitely another one of my favorites. “What Is a Killer Like You Doing Here?” catches you off guard with the brooding Reznor-ish low-register vocal delivery paired with the finger-snaps, hand-claps, and vintage blues rock guitar licks setting a subtler head-nodding, yet still head-tilting, mood after the invigoration ensued by the previous few songs.  “Sacrilegium III” closes the album with a soothing, but lo-fi distorted, keyboard cool-down that, for me, represented the overall mood of this album coupled with immense joy I had hearing such a genuinely special, well-put-together, and satisfying atmospheric metal-heavy project.

As far as complaints go, my only real issue with this album is that sometimes the mastering is a little too fuzzy for the grand, powerful moments of songs like “Children’s Summon” and “Blood in the River” to really shine as cathartically as they should and I have had to compensate for it by EQ-ing the shit out of and/or just blasting the album, the latter of which it certainly deserves.

Hats off, in conclusion, to Manuel Gagneux for debuting with one of the strongest albums of the year for sure; I am absolutely floored by what this thing did in its short running time, which perhaps worked to its benefit. This album starts ambient black metal off on a good note for 2017 and really changes the game in a positive way that raises the bar even higher above basic post-rock and Emperor stew, which is certainly what ambient black metal needs to keep it from falling into the rut that death metal’s most run-of-the-mill outfits keep digging for acts like Gojira and Cattle Decapitation to fill. I think that it will come to be respected and revered by atmospheric black metal enthusiasts over time even if they are confused by it now and I think its influence on atmospheric black metal will be one that expands its boundaries without starting any kind of really impersonation-driven trend. Devil Is Fine is possibly my favorite album so far if it can dethrone Code Orange’s Forever on my personal league table of albums this year as I listen to them both more and more. If Zeal & Ardor releases more music, I would certainly be thrilled to see this sound expanded into a more comprehensive and massive effort because this here is some incredible experimental black metal quite deserving of recognition beyond being a wild mash-up of unlike styles and deserving of further investment.