by BRIAN GIFFIN
ZEAL & Ardor’s creative journey to this point has been a riveting one. If nothing else – and they are plenty of things – this is a band that is defined by its defiance. What else could have driven Manuel Gagneux to bring together traditional African-American music and black metal? Lots of things, surely, but defiance was definitely one of them. The sheer audacity at initially blending two musical genres that could not be further apart was matched only by how extreme metal fans were confounded and confused by how well he pulled it off.
Since then the band has experimented further with electronica, nu-metal, shoegaze and other apparently wildly disparate elements, all working with those original core sounds to come up with something extraordinary. Like the fictional creature that inspired this album, however, Zeal & Ardor seems to have turned its back on those elements.
GREIF then, is a somewhat frustrating record that dials back the soul and Gospel almost completely, with even the black metal relegated to brief explosions here and there. Without that defining core, Zeal & Ardor loses part of its identity. Gagneux’ voice and his thoughtful, heart-rending lyrics make GREIF recognisable as a Zeal & Ardor record but the bulk of this is weirdly disjointed, wavering between half-baked desert rock (“Sugarcoat” and “Disease”), British post-indie stuff like “Thrill” and “Kilanova” and meandering electronica. “Clawing Out” restores the balance a little as the band resort to the aggressive mix of Slipknot and NiN they’ve done previously, and “Hide in Shade” seethes with rage and frustration that finally expresses itself with BM shrieking and blastbeats. For the most part, however, without the soulful, Delta elements, GREIF comes across like Sleep Token on an electronica/indie rock kick. It’s not the absence of metal that brings this down, it’s the lack of vitality and intensity, plodding along without holding together. Unlike previous entries in the catalogue, this one just isn’t as interesting.
A transitional release, most likely, given Gagneux’ desire to move Z&A into other directions, but this is quite a disappointment.
