10 Incredible New Pioneers Of Old-School Metal

By rights, any individual that crafts music can be considered an "artist". For his work in his acclaimed and post-modern solo project Zeal & Ardor, however, Manuel Gagneux is one of heavy metal's very few "high artists".

Zeal & Ardor's debut album, Devil Is Fine (2017), is less than three months old, yet it is already one of this year's best records, even with its minuscule 25-minute running time. Transcending all notions of genre and classifications, instead opting to be guttural and spontaneous, the best way to describe Zeal & Ardor may be as black metal meets American slave music, but even that description doesn't cover the true range of this whole-heartedly original experience.

No matter the genre, one thing cannot be denied: Devil Is Fine is a dark, dark ride, despondent to the last drop and as beautifully unhallowed as its title may suggest. For the tone it carries alone, it is a worthy successor to the black metal mantle.

Sure, it isn't as overt and heavy as classic black metal innovators like Mayhem and Emperor, but Zeal & Ardor carries the same subversive spirit through paranoid, psychological nihilism that toys with the mind. It crafts a suspenseful aura the likes of which blistering, balls-to-the-wall metal, devoid of all subtlety in favour of readily inducing moshpits, never could.

Devil Is Fine makes black metal post-modern and intelligent, but not in the same way as ambient bands like Ghost Bath or Alcest. Zeal & Ardor is black metal purely in tone and mood, while Ghost Bath is black metal in riff structuring, imagery and generic classification, as well as tone.

Because of its distinction from but similarities to original black metal, Zeal & Ardor is nothing shy of perfect as a marker of its evolution.