{"id":3015,"date":"2017-02-10T13:30:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T13:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-zeal-and-ardor-devil-is-fine\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:11:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:11:03","slug":"review-zeal-and-ardor-devil-is-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-zeal-and-ardor-devil-is-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Review:\u00a0Zeal and Ardor &#8211;\u00a0Devil is Fine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/4769506a4078e1a014abef9aae8d05da\/tumblr_ojw07zX49O1r8no6so8_r1_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>When an anonymous poster on internet cesspool 4chan requested Swiss-American songwriter\/soundscaper Manuel Gagneux to compose a <i>\u201ccombination of black metal and n***** music,\u201d<\/i> taking offence at such crudeness would have been understandable. Instead, the trolls\u2019 negative energy is confronted by <i>\u2018Devil is Fine\u2019<\/i>, the provocative and innovative debut album by Gagneux\u2019s solo project, <b>Zeal &amp; Ardor<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Using a wide scope of ideas and inspirations from contemporary and historical musical sources, <i>\u2018Devil is Fine\u2019<\/i> explores the concept of American slaves rejecting the Christian scripture taught by their owners and finding freedom in Satanism. <i>&ldquo;He gonna forgive my sins, devil is kind, He promised many things, devil is fine,&rdquo;<\/i> Gagneux sings on the opening title track backed by rattling metal chains, reflecting the captive state of slaves and considering the forgiving nature of The Dark Lord compared to the punishing ideals of Christianity.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p><b>Zeal &amp; Ardor<\/b> is a constant melting pot of different dark sounds, combining grim black metal guitar shredding and hypnotic call-and-response chants with menacing electronic drum beats on <i>\u2018In Ashes\u2019<\/i>, before interlude <i>\u2018Sacrilegium I\u2019<\/i> delves into icy synthesiser melodies backed by hip-hop beats. <i>\u2018Come On Down\u2019<\/i> even fits melodic death metal breakdowns with the dark sway of Memphis blues.<\/p>\n<p>For all the different ideas roaming on the record, a cinematic grandeur and uncertainty ties these songs together into an unsettling piece of art. Whether Gagneux works with high pitched shrieks and blastbeats or baritone refrains and syncopated backing vocals, he makes a dark soundscape with an organic heaviness behind it.<\/p>\n<p>At nine tracks, <i>\u2018Devil is Fine\u2019<\/i> leaves you parched for much more from <b>Zeal &amp; Ardor<\/b>. But what we have is an album to polarise and inspire music fans across the board, provoke conversations about race and religion in America at a much-needed time, and most importantly, silence the trolls.<\/p>\n<p>4.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&lsquo;Devil is Fine&rsquo;<\/i> by <b>Zeal and Ardor<\/b> is released on 24th February on <b>MVKA Music<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Zeal and Ardor<\/b> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zealandardor.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zealandardor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zealandardor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/zealandardor.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Andy Davidson (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AndyrfDavidson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@AndyrfDavidson<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When an anonymous poster on internet cesspool 4chan requested Swiss-American songwriter\/soundscaper Manuel Gagneux to compose a \u201ccombination of black metal and n***** music,\u201d taking offence at such crudeness would have been understandable. Instead, the trolls\u2019 negative energy is confronted by \u2018Devil is Fine\u2019, the provocative and innovative debut album by Gagneux\u2019s solo project, Zeal &amp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":16108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[15033,15021,2257,2258,2256],"class_list":["post-3015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-andrew-davidson","tag-andy-davidson","tag-devil-is-fine","tag-mvka-music","tag-zeal-and-ardor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review:\u00a0Zeal and Ardor -\u00a0Devil is Fine - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When an anonymous poster on internet cesspool 4chan requested Swiss-American songwriter\/soundscaper Manuel Gagneux to compose a \u201ccombination of black\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review:\u00a0Zeal and Ardor -\u00a0Devil is Fine - 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