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You may not have heard of them yet, but Zeal & Ardor have just released their debut album Devil Is Fine, and it's proving to be one of the weirdest, most interesting heavy records we've heard in recent times!
Zeal & Ardor is the creation of Swiss-American frontman Manual Gagneux, and believe it or not he actually came up with the concept based on the suggestion of 4chan users to combine black metal with "n**ger music".
"I considered the idea, I saw a certain defiance in spirit and attitude in the slave spirituals and work songs that I could relate to the defiance in Norwegian black metal towards Christianity and the destruction of their original environment. And so that was the starting point for the experiment."
When asked if he was offended by the suggestion of the anonymous message-board users Gagneux said:
“No, because it’s 4chan, and to take offence there is to give the idiots and the bigots a power and influence they do not deserve. But when I considered the idea, I saw a certain defiance in spirit and attitude in the slave spirituals and work songs that I could relate to the defiance in Norwegian black metal towards Christianity and the destruction of their original environment. And so that was the starting point for the experiment.”
"Devil Is Fine was not created thinking that this many would ever hear it. There is no stylistic compromise or pandering on it. Only things I personally like. It’s like walking through slave-era America and seeing a chain gang in the woods practising Satanic rituals"
We can definitely agree with those comments! Take a listen for yourself in the videos below, and if you like what you hear, how about you grab a copy of the album?
