10 Essential Rock Albums Of The 2010s

The history behind Zeal and Ardor is almost as fascinating as the project that came from it. This is a band that was birthed from 4Chan...wait, no, come back! Manuel Gagneux originally made chamber pop with moderate success before deciding he wanted to branch out and experiment.

He asked the 4Chan community to suggest two genres to combine. The suggestions they provided were black metal and...n-word music. Which, I think we can all agree is a pretty horrible suggestion, but Gagneux rolled with it and used black metal as a foundation whilst incorporating African-American spirituals alongside.

The result is incredible. There is no way in hell that the two genres should have worked together, which is perhaps why no one had ever thought to do it. But much like dipping Doritos in Nutella, just because two things don't seem like they'll work together doesn't mean they won't.

Considering the fact that many African-American spirtuals would have been sung by slaves, the inherent rage behind black metal instrumentals compliments the lyrical subject matter and vocal tone perfectly. While the heavy, mechanical rhythm of black metal works so well in conjunction with what would amount to "work songs". Honestly, you haven't heard an album like Devil is Fine before, and you probably won't for a long time.