5 Best Metal Albums Of June 2018
1. Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit
In last month’s “5 Best Metal Albums of May 2018” list, I gave Ihsahn’s latest solo album the inaugural number one spot and wrote that it was “hugely difficult to imagine any album in the near-future outdoing Ámr in terms of sheer quality.”
This statement has not aged well, because, four weeks down the line, it has been outdone. The culprit? That little scallywag Manuel Gagneux – better known as Zeal & Ardor.
I should have seen this coming, really. After all, we at WhatCulture have been ranting and raving about the avant-garde, one-man metal project for some time now, continually singing the praises of its debut, Devil Is Fine, to the point that it even climbed to number three on our “50 Best Metal Albums of 2017” piece.
But somehow, Stranger Fruit is even better than its predecessor, doubling its length and delivering a streamlined magnum opus that fully commits to a bizarre yet harmonious fusion: that of black metal and African-American spiritual music.
As Stranger Fruit witnesses Gagneux deliver enchanting melodies over ominous, dissonant instrumentation, it soars to the top spot not only of this month, but also of this entire year thus far!