1,000,001 CDs 20: Zeal & Ardor, Manuel Gagneux & Lexi

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Zeal & Ardor CD front cover 

Artwork ~ Noé Herrmann 

Illustration ~ Nico Charon 

photo of front cover by Styrous®

My wonderful Lexi of Titanic fame has done it again! Her Christmas present to me was a really kool CD by a heavy metal group I had never heard before, Zeal & Ardor.       

         

Formed in 2013, Zeal & Ardor is a Swiss avant-garde metal band started and led by Manuel Gagneux, a Swiss-American musician who had previously created a chamber pop project called Birdmask. The group mixes sounds of African-American spirituals and other black music forms with black metal.          

 

 

Manuel Gagneux 

photo by Derek Bremner

 

 

The son of a white Swiss biologist who played percussion in Cuba and a black American jazz singer, he did not fit in. Not really Swiss, not really a black kid, he wrestled with the feeling through his primary school years. Perhaps it’s what is heard now in his music. He says he still doesn’t really know where it came from – just that it was there.     

Initially a solo project, the band signed with MVKA records in 2016 and expanded to a full lineup, with Gagneux on vocals and guitar, backing vocalists Denis Wagner and Marc Obrist, guitarist Tiziano Volante, bassist Mia Rafaela Dieu, and drummer Marco Von Allmen. The project started in New York City, but is now based in Basel, Switzerland.     

Hunkering down in the basement of the local bar he used to co-own (“a squat-y, punky bar, full of tags and awful imagery, beer’s cheap”) he worked on songs, including some he’d previously written for Eric Garner, a black man killed in Staten Island after police put him in a chokehold in 2014.    

Manuel Gagneux 

photo by Matthias Willi

Gagneux posted his Birdmask music to 4chan, he said, "to get feedback because they're brutally honest and don't give a shit about you." He would ask users for two musical genres to combine and create a song in half an hour, as an experiment to expand his creativity. One of these users suggested that he fuse "black metal", while another suggested "nigger music"; in response, he started Zeal & Ardor, which features elements of both black metal and slave songs.       

 

Billboard Magazine:

"If the Zeal & Ardor combination of Scandinavian black metal and black American slave spirituals seems contrived, that’s because it is — or at least, it was."          

Manuel Gagneux - 2022

photo by Nat Wood

 

I pretty much like all the songs on the album but the ones in particular that have grabbed me are Bow, Golden Liar, Feed The Machine, Death to the Holy, Church Burns and Hold Your Head Low. 

 Zeal & Ardor ~ Zeal & Ardor

CD open front cover 

Artwork ~ Noé Herrmann 

Illustration ~ Nico Charon 

photo of front cover by Styrous®

  

Bow is the seventh cut on the CD but I like using it as the opening shot; it gives you a taste for what comes after. It is a very slow number with a very heavy beat; when I say heavy, I mean HEAVY! It has a great chorus back up which makes it SO rhythm 'n blues, with a bite!         

 

        

 

 Zeal & Ardor ~ Zeal & Ardor

CD & interior cover 

Artwork ~ Noé Herrmann 

Illustration ~ Nico Charon 

photo of front cover by Styrous®

 

 

Golden Liar is mostly a guitar duet, a couple of male vocals, great understated percussion with a heavy beat, tons of sonic effects, a quiet chorus and good lyrics. And it is sensational! It's the fifth cut on the CD and I highly recommend listening to it second. I feel it is a wonderfully delicate nuance of a determined-to-get-there sound. It is VERY slow and its grandly pounding bass drum tugs you along on its journey to wherever it is going.        

 

 Zeal & Ardor ~ Zeal & Ardor

CD & interior cover detail

Artwork ~ Noé Herrmann 

Illustration ~ Nico Charon 

detail photo by Styrous®

 

 

Feed The Machine is another slow song with a driving beat and a treatment Marilyn Manson would have given his eye teeth for. It is a blend of mid-seventies, pre-disco, hip-grinding soul and way out there metal. It's a terrific song to dance, if not, at least move to.         

     

 

 Zeal & Ardor ~ Zeal & Ardor

interior cover

photo by Styrous®

 

 

Hold Your Head Low also like the above mentioned, Bow, is another very slow song with a great male chorus that definitely puts it in the R 'n B, mode; and terrific guitar work during the quiet breaks; in spots it drives right through your head like a rusty nail. It's a really great song with interesting lyrics.        

Although it is also a moderately slow song, Death To the Holy is pure dynamite! With great piano work, it is a conglomeration of soul, rap and who knows WHAT! The video for this song on YouTube (link below) cautions against subject.    

Church Burns begins like a blues song but breaks out into metal then back and forth. Really beautiful vocal and guitar in the breaks.           

 

 

Zeal & Ardor ~ Zeal & Ardor

CD cradle

photo by Styrous®
 

 

It seems most of the songs I've talked about have been moderately slow ones but Headbangers have not been left out. Gotterdammerung, J-M-B and Run quite nicely fill that niche.          

 

Gotterdammerung is VERY heavy metal, no doubt about it. It just starts FULL steam; no messin' 'round, no intro build up,

 

Run does just THAT! It is a humdinger with furiously fast guitars followed by equally fast tom-toms. There is a video for the song on YouTube (link below), however, it is very frenetic and has a warning at the beginning that warns one of possible seizures. Not sure if that is just marketing hype.   

 

The opening and closing songs are VERY short, really interesting and deserving of closer look and listening.           

 Zeal & Ardor ~ Zeal & Ardor

back cover

photo by Styrous® 

           

Tracklist:

        Solve   
1 Zeal & Ardor - 1:58
2 Run - 3:17
3 Death to the Holy - 3:08
4 Emersion - 3:35
5 Golden Liar - 3:44
6 Erase - 4:02
7 Bow - 2:14

        Coagula   
8 Feed The Machine - 2:39
9 I Caught You - 4:07
10 Church Burns    3:04
11 Gotterdammerung - 3:03
12 Hold Your Head Low - 4:43
13 J-M-B - 1:54
14 A-H-I-L - 2:36

Companies, etc.

    Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Redacted GmbH
    Copyright © – Redacted GmbH
    Licensed To – Mvka
    Published By – Chester Music
    Manufactured By – SixtySix Productions
    Manufactured By – www.sixtysixproductions.co.uk
    Manufactured By – Optimal Media GmbH – AL64008
    Recorded At – Hutch Sounds
    Mixed At – Graphic Nature Audio
    Mastered At – Graphic Nature Audio

Credits:

    Artwork – Noé Herrmann, Zeal & Ardor*
    Composed By – Manuel Gagneux
    Drums, Performer, Photography By – Marco von Allmen
    Illustration – Nico Charon
    Mixed By, Mastered By – Will Putney
    Recorded By – Manuel Gagneux, Marc Obrist

Notes:

Comes in 6 panel Digipak.

Recorded at Hutch Sounds.
Mixed and mastered at Graphic Nature Audio.
Special thanks to Schammasch.

© & ℗ 2021 & 2022 Redacted GmbH under exclusive license to MKVA.
All rights reserved.

Made in Germany

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Barcode: 190296780851
    Label Code: LC 49967
    Matrix / Runout: SixtySix66 www.sixtysixproductions.co.uk AL64008-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH
    Mastering SID Code: IFPI L578

 

Zeal & Ardor* – Zeal & Ardor
Label:    Mvka – MVLP1049
Format:    CD, Album
Country: Worldwide
Released: Feb 11, 2022
Genre:    Rock
Style:    Black Metal, Soul
          

 

 

          

Viewfinder links:        

         

Lexi       

Marilyn Manson        

Titanic LaserDisc        

Zeal & Ardor lyrics            

      

Net links:        

         

AMP Playlist ~ Zeal & Ardor ~ Denis Wagner

Nico Charon           

Noé Herrmann       

LounderSound ~ Inside the mind of Zeal & Ardor mastermind Manuel Gagneux 

Void Report ~ Deafheaven, Baroness, Zeal & Ardor (review) 

      

YouTube links:         

Bow           

Church Burns          

Death to the Holy (video)           

Emersion         

Erase         

Feed The Machine        

Golden Liar         

Gotterdammerung         

Hold Your Head Low            

I Caught You        

J-M-B   

Run (video)           

Zeal & Ardor (opening song)          

A-H-I-L (closing song)  

         

         

Once again, thanks, Lexi!

         

Styrous® ~ Sunday, February 5, 2023     

    

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Marilyn Manson article/mentions

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Alice Cooper ~ Killer    
Billie Eilish ~ When We All Fall Asleep, . . . ?   
     
  
  
  
     
        
  
  
  
Marilyn Manson        
date & photographer unknown       
  
  
  
     

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1,000,001 CDs 16: Billie Eilish ~ When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

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Most of my friends are strange in one way or another; but that's a good thing because I am as well, so I fit in more or less, here and there!           

                

This was demonstrated nicely this Christmas by one of the gifts I received; a CD from Lex of Titanic and Bowie & Halihal fame (links below).               

The cover of the CD gave me a start when I began to examine it! The visual is reminiscent of Poltergeist, Nosferatu or some such horror/shock flick. The image on the cover is SUPER eerie!   

Billie Eilish ~ When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

CD front cover
cover photo by Kenneth Cappello
photo of album cover by Styrous®

Then the title is extremely provocative, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which filled me with curiosity; I could hardly wait to play it!     

However, I wasn't able to play it for several days (Christmas stuff) but when I did play it, I thought to myself, "What the hell?" I hadn't used my CD player in over a year so was concerned about the distortion I was hearing. Was my player malfunctioning?        

 

I put the CD in the computer but there was the distortion again, so, I figured the CD was defective and would have to return it. Then it occurred to me to go to YouTube. It was from listening to it on that site that I realized it was not a defective CD, a malfunctioning CD player or my computer in the process of dying. It is the way the music/sound was meant to be!        

Also, the videos for the songs are REALLY weird and compliment the weirdness of the music! bury a friend is obviously about drugs and it is pretty frightening (YouTube links below).     

         

      

After I played it a couple of times, I began to hear the real beauty(???) of it. How do I describe it? Think Julee Cruise teaming up with Marilyn Manson; the result is Billie Eilish! The music is truly ASTOUNDING!      

Billie Eilish wrote the songs and music. Not only that, she also recorded the album. If that isn't enough, she did it in the bedroom studio of her brother, Finneas O'Connell, in Highland Park, California. She used production material including Logic Pro X, a Universal Audio Apollo 8 interface and a pair of Yamaha HS5 studio monitors with an H8S subwoofer.    

 

Her vision of the world is, well, extremely scary and the photo on the album cover reflects that vision! The lyrics deal with the not-so-nice things of life (link below).    

The photo is by Kenneth Cappello. The photo shoot took place on Eilish's birthday in December at a studio in Los Angeles. Eilish had prepared sketches for the album cover which were inspired by the album's themes of night terrors and lucid dreaming, as well as Eilish's interest in horror films. Cappello told MTV News that he "knew she wanted it moody". In order for it to "feel real," Cappello added no additional lighting to the end photo so as to give the impression that "a door was opening and that was the light coming into the bedroom." He additionally shot different variations of Eilish sitting on the bed expressing a range of emotions. Eilish wore contacts to fill in her eyes completely with white. She further wished to use a minimum of additional special effects and touch-ups on the end product to retain a sense of "realness and transparency."

I researched When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and discovered it has become a top selling album. Will wonders never cease?      

 

Although it is different in many ways, everything about the album puts me in mind of the last album by David Bowie, ‎ ★ (Blackstar) (links below). The cover design for the Bowie album by Jonathan Barnbrook is not the same yet the feeling of it is. And of course, the music is similarly weird in different ways.    

  

         

Tracklist:

1 - !!!!!!! - 0:14
2 = Bad Guy, Producer [Additional Production] – Billie Eilish - 3:14
3 - Xanny - 4:04
4 - You Should See Me In A Crown - 3:01
5 - All The Good Girls Go To Hell - 2:49
6 - Wish You Were Gay - 3:42
7 - When The Party's Over - 3:16
8 - 8 - 2:53
9 - My Strange Addiction - 3:00
10 - Bury A Friend - 3:13
11 - Ilomilo     2:36
12 - Listen Before I Go     4:03
13 - I Love You - 4:52
14 - Goodbye - 1:59

Companies, etc.

    Distributed By – UMG Commercial Services
    Published By – Universal Music Corp.
    Published By – Drup
    Published By – Last Frontier

Credits:

    A&R – Justin Lubliner, Sam Riback
    Legal – David Ferreria
    Management – Brandon Goodman, Danny Rukasin
    Mastered By – John Greenham
    Mixed By – Rob Kinelski
    Producer – Finneas*
    Written-By – Billie Eilish O'Connell* (tracks: 1 to 6, 8, 10 to 14), Finneas O'Connell (tracks: 7, 9)

Notes:

All titles stylized in lowercase.

Debut studio album released on March 29, 2019. The songs "You Should See Me in a Crown" and "When the Party's Over" were released as the first two singles from the album. The third single, "Bury a Friend" was released with the album pre-order on January 30, 2019. The fourth single, "Wish You Were Gay", was released on March 4, 2019 and the fifth single, "Bad Guy", was released on March 29, 2019, shortly after the album's release. Most of the album's tracks were written during the production of Eilish's 2017 EP "Don't Smile at Me". These songs were supposed to be part of an album that was to be released in the summer of 2017, instead "Don’t Smile at Me" was released.


Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Barcode (Printed [UPC-A]): 6 02577 42762 6
    Barcode (Scanned [UPC]): 602577427626
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 1): B002972702 333572104
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 1): 02/20/2019 08:32AM#33545
    Mould SID Code (Variant 1): IFPI LN09
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 2): B002972702 3335721 07
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 2): 02/20/2019 09:35.AM#33549
    Mastering SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI LN09
    Mould SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI 1025
    Rights Society: ASCAP

            

Viewfinder links:               

        
Jonathan Barnbrook          
★ (Blackstar)   
Bowie & Halihal         
David Bowie          

Julee Cruise        
Marilyn Manson       

Titanic            

      

Net links:               

        
Azlyrics ~ When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go album lyrics
Billboard ~ Billie Eilish review          
Kenneth Cappello website        
Billie Eilish website               
Forbes ~ Four Hit Singles On The Charts          
NY Times ~ Grande Was Updating Pop. Then Eilish Came Along  
NME ~ Billie Eilish review        
NPR ~ Bad Guy No. 1 Song On Billboard Hot 100      

Pitchfork ~ Billie Eilish review
RollingStone ~ Billie Eilish review        
Variety ~ a Bad-Ass Kid and Wisened Chanteuse, Too concert review    

            

YouTube links:               

Billie Eilish ~      
       bury a friend 
       when the party's over  
Julee Cruise ~ 
       The World Spins       
       Falling
Marilyn Manson ~ 
       The Dope Show    
       God's Gonna Cut You Down   
     
     

            

                

Lex, you've come a long way since Titanic!

      

            

               

Styrous® ~ December 30, 2019

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