ZEAL & ARDOR
Metal’s most vital young voice is gearing up for album number three
With his 2020 EP Wake Of A Nation, released in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests that followed, Manuel Gagneux didn’t just reaffirm his place as one of the single most exciting artists of his generation; he took on a mantle as a vital voice in metal for protest, progress and change. It gives his next steps an even bigger sense of urgency and importance, as his third studio album – the follow-up to 2018’s Stranger Fruit full-length – is believed to be on the way and due to land at some point this year.
Manuel’s work has always mixed the surreal with the all-too-real, merging high concept narratives with hard-hitting issues and contemporary themes, all under the hood of his chilling, unique black’n’blues metal. Wake Of A Nation, however, felt like something else: far too timely to be ignored and breathtakingly on-the-nose, it made more of an emotional and conscious-grabbing impact in 17 minutes than most bands manage in a whole year. That the singersongwriter elected not to promote the EP with any interviews not only added to the mystique around the release, but suggested he was very much willing to just let the music do the talking this time out.
What this all means for the new album is anyone’s guess, but with more support, more time at his disposable and more expectation around his work than at any other point in his young career so far, it’s probably safe to bet that Zeal & Ardor will be unleashing something damn pretty special before
2021 is said and done.