Zeal & Ardor have released the official video for song Death To The Holy, taken from their newly released, self-titled, third album.
Frontman Manuel Gagneux comments, “‘The video to Death To The Holy marks a visual departure from our established aesthetic. A short and buzzing rumination on the question “What would happen if we get proof of God’s nonexistence?” Directed by Jen Ries, it perfectly matches the song’s urgency and relentlessness.”
The widely praised, self-titled album is a masterclass in distilled rage. Recorded by Marc Obrist and Manuel Gagneux at Hutch Sounds, ‘Zeal & Ardor’ was mixed & mastered by Will Putney at Graphic Nature Audio. All songs were written and performed (except drums) by the multi-lingual Gagneux. Released in February 2022, the 14-track album is available digitally, as a digipack CD, and as a black vinyl, a white vinyl (indie exclusive), or a deluxe, gatefold, double black vinyl.
Other recent videos from Zeal & Ardor include Run (director: Garrick J. Lauterbach) and Golden Liar (director: Max Carlo Kohal).
Zeal & Ardor return to the UK in May/June 2022, as special guests to Meshuggah.
Zeal & Ardor’s widely praised second album, ‘Stranger Fruit’, was released by MVKA in 2018, following the global attention-getting, multi-million streamed debut, ‘Devil Is Fine’. Critically acclaimed across the industry, The Guardian newspaper described ‘Stranger Fruit’ as “extraordinary and brilliant” upon release. Upset wrote it was “a compelling listen,” Metal Hammer applauded its “sheer musical brilliance,” with Rock Sound concluding, it was “one of the most uniquely daring and wholly affecting albums of 2018 so far,” plus further plaudits rolling in from Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Noisey, Alternative Press, and more.
By Christmas 2018, the UK’s largest free newspaper Metro declared ‘Stranger Fruit’ their #2 Album of the Year in a cross-genre list, declaring “in this jaw-dropping meld of black American folk music and black metal, the Swiss artist Manuel Gagneux has hit upon something genuinely original.” In March 2019, following a blistering set in London the previous December, the band went on to release the double live album ‘Live In London’. Then, in October 2020, amidst a provocative and stimulating 18-month profound period of reflection – that led to the writing of the new, self-titled album – the band quietly shared the striking, standalone 6-track EP, ‘Wake Of A Nation’. Their intense third album, crystallising everything the band are, was released 11th February, 2022.
