Zeal & Ardor - Devil Is Fine review
| Band: | Zeal & Ardor |
| Album: | Devil Is Fine |
| Style: | Avantgarde black metal |
| Release date: | April 15, 2016 |
| A review by: | Windrider |
01. Devil Is Fine
02. In Ashes
03. Sacrilegium I
04. Come On Down
05. Children's Summon
06. Sacrilegium II
07. Blood In The River
08. What Is A Killer Like You Gonna Do Here?
09. Sacrliegium III
Once in a while there comes a time when new ways open up for music. Frontiers are being torn down and ideas can stream freely, going on a journey that takes them through many discussions and lets the creator experience both hatred and admiration. It always takes its time until a new sound is essentially established and the occasions where one can witness the birth of a new style are rare. So we are truly fortunate drunkards to live in the time where Zeal And Ardor release their second album to date, Devil Is Fine.
Everyone has probably heard of the slave music of African American people, called spirituals. And most people that are reading this review now (that includes you!) should at least once have been in contact with black metal yet. Even though spirituals are in a way also "black" by nature, those two genres couldn't have a greater distance in-between them, at least that's what most people thought until now. Now Zeal And Ardor come along and merge them in a way that feels like something has been missing all the time. Actually, they even add a third ingredient to the melting pot, namely electronic and ambient music.
But let's get more into details. Most songs on Devil Is Fine are based on the spiritual-like chorals sung by mastermind Manuel Gagneux, using a loud and clipping sound level to get a certain retro sound in a natural way. This is then paired with modern guitars, bass and drums in a (black) metal style, using heavy riffs, tremolo picking, double bass etc. Some occasional shrieks are thrown in and synth melodies complete the picture. But wait, there's more. Looking for pseudo prayer call like one knows from the muezzins, a bluesy '60s guitar solo or techno beats? Here you get it all. And all of it is done incredibly well, giving so many different feelings to the only 24 minutes of the record that one could arguably say there is more content and value than in many hour long albums.
The tracks are rather short but I suppose that's the only way they properly work, making each piece a distinct and unique approach to this style. Another interesting point are the lyrics. What sounds like holy and godlike gospel themes is in fact of truly satanic meaning, where Gagneux sings of praising the devil and the death of people. The funny thing is that at first sight that's not obvious at all, for the vocals itself act like it's all perfectly natural and spirituals have always been satanic. Best line in my opinion is the rhythmic "The riverbed will run red with the blood of the saints and the blood of the holy".
As a conclusion, Zeal And Ardor are without doubt contenders for the album of the year, although I don't know in which category. But it certainly won't get any blacker than that. Now I better get my humor back on the cotton fields.
Comments
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Comments: 41
Visited by: 491 users
| Jaeryd Nihil's Maw Posts: 1062  |
Great review--matches my thoughts on it very precisely. I loved this album; it's quite different and extremely well put together. I hope this guy keeps continuing along this path, refining the sound, and putting out more music under the name Zeal and Ardor, because this is great.
---- 
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| bddidier Posts: 70  |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
Bravo for stepping up to reviewing this one, it is indeed a fantastic release, very impressive and creative *By the way, here's the debut, for those interested
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Windrider Raureif Posts: 684  |
Written by Auntie Sahar on 09.07.2016 at 16:23 Thanks, after some months of not having time / nothing too impressive / etc I felt like this is the right thing to get back to reviewing haha. Until now album of the year for me.
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| Malignar Posts: 285 |
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| Slyfang Posts: 409  |
Zeal and Ardor kind of reminds me of Thy Catafalque, though less progressive and less Hungarian.. but what fascinates me endlessly with both is that you can never predict what the next song is going to sound like
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| flightoficarus Stamp Tramp Posts: 1116  |
Very interesting stuff. Thanks for drawing attention. There have been a lot of good albums this year, but not a ton of really inventive stuff going on.
---- Daily underground metal recommendations at Metal Trenches. Watch metal content on the Metal Trenches YouTube Channel.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
A nice and great and dandy album but totally not near oerfect totally classic 9.5 material. Seems like we at ms are on a trend of totally overrating albums ( other examples being Sabaton and Babymetal and loads of other stuff) An 8 still denotes sonething us really.good or even great. A 7 still means good. Please don't forget that. *directed at ALL reviewers*
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 5925  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.07.2016 at 05:36  I assume that by "ALL reviewers" you mean "a particular reviewer." That's very fair, as I'll admit that I can be quite generous with my ratings. In part, I'm always accused of having low standards in real life as well as on MS, and I tend to have an unnecessary or overblown appreciation for a lot of bands by my nature, so I think I simply like a lot of things a lot more than most people. Just today I was listening to Lulu again for reasons that I don't understand and seriously enjoying it. In part, though, I do actually struggle with gauging true numerical values. It's quite easy to forget that lower numbers are not necessarily bad, even if they are worse, and substantively differentiating between the lowest of ratings presents its own challenges. I'm not satisfied with some of the scores I've published in the past, as my understanding of reviewing criteria has evolved continuously, and that's why it is important to take the entire substance of the review into account and not just one number. Lately I have been trying to approach albums more critically and develop a fairer, more useful reviewing style. I'm very satisfied with everything I've written in the last year, at least. Sabaton and Babymetal are bad examples, as Sabaton is one of my top five bands and I stand by my ridiculous near-perfect ratings for them (Slot, too), so you can prepare yourself for another ludicrously high score once I get my hands on The Last Stand; the new Babymetal I'd legitimately say is my #2 or #3 album of the year so far, and as silly as it is, I can't stop listening to it. I'm willing to defend those as not simply the consequence of a misunderstanding of numbers, but the product of personal, subjective love for the bands. I wouldn't give Devil Is Fine a 9.5, but I do consider it an excellent album in terms of concept, construction, delivery, and how much I enjoy it, so I could very easily see how somebody could rate it a 9.5 with a full appreciation for what that rating entails. I do recognize that it can be confusing and nonsensical looking back at my old reviews and observing what passed for x or y score in my mind, and the comparisons don't even stack up a lot of the time, but again, I've been slowly improving over the six years that I have been writing. I did start this when I was 16, when everything is more easily expressed without subtlety, so it's no small wonder that much of my early work, and some stray reviews here and there, are kind of crap in one regard or another. Again, though, my reviews of Sabaton, Slot, Babymetal - basically, any band that I'm regularly accused of overhyping to infinity - are all defensible, legitimate, and indicative of my genuine feelings towards the albums. Then, of course, you can easily accuse me of being a total fanboy with no objective voice, but I can hardly help it if I love all the albums by my favorite bands, can I?
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 5925 |
I didn't mean to hijack your review, though, Windrider. I agree that this is a fantastic album. I don't do any serious research on the year in metal until the MS Awards open up, so I don't exactly have a lot of contenders for album of the year yet, but I'd be quite surprised if this wound up outside my top 20.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| LuciferOfGayness Account deleted |
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| Windrider Raureif Posts: 684 |
Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 10.07.2016 at 07:24 No problem, I appreciate the discussion here  Of course I also agree with Marcel's criticism, but to defend myself I have to say I also put the vast majority of albums that I like in-between 7 and 8 nowadays. And Zeal And Ardor is yet my only 9+ album this year, so I think that's not really inflational. 
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020  |
Knowing ms logic and staffers and friends and hangarounds and weird band requesters what was his name , will make this will be nominated to msa for me awesome discovery, I always was fascinated whit delta blues, jazz, even I hardly listen such music and influences, we have seen hiphopers do some things whi jazz n blues, why metal cant, we are higher and intellectual one ;p lol basically good work
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| RockSplendid Posts: 68  |
The most bizarre black metal mindfuck! The most unique album of the year, for sure!
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| SoUnDs LiKe PoP Posts: 1060 |
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| LuciferOfGayness Account deleted |
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| MétalNoir Fils du Lys Posts: 847  |
"Children's Summon" 
---- Notre destinée n'est pas encore tracée....
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| psykometal A staff guy... Elite Posts: 6101  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.07.2016 at 05:36 You indicated to me the other day that Lords is taking off the month of August, so you should totally do a few reviews for MS that month in order to show all these reviewers how it's done.  
---- ~Zep, Database and Forum Moderation~ 
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| LuciferOfGayness Account deleted |
LuciferOfGayness
Account deleted Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 11.07.2016 at 08:04 Marcel can be a retard at times, but comparing your profile to his in regards of posts, news, articles, interviews and reviews is like watching a snail get trampled, pissed and shitten on by an elephant 
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.07.2016 at 05:36 you need to realize that your way of seeing ratings might be different from someone else's. It's not the Ten commandments, it's not written anywhere for everyone to follow.
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| Zap Posts: 3580  |
He has a point though. Out of the 8 album reviews currently featured on the front page half of them score 8 or higher. Not every album is exceptional. I understand that everyone has a different 'system' of how they rate things but there seems to be very little middle ground between good and bad scores. That aside, I never expected as much hype for this album as it has been getting. I'm glad though, it's great.
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 5925 |
Written by Zap on 12.07.2016 at 18:54 True, but I also think that we get sent more good albums than bad ones, and those of us writing also listen to more good albums/bands than bad ones. The majority of metal albums that I have heard in my life have been at least "decent," and I think if the quality of those albums in general weren't weighted positively, I would listen to less metal. That's just me, and as I said above it seems that I tend to like things more than other people do a lot of the time, so I don't see any problem with having more positive reviews coming out than negative. Looking at the scores currently on the front page, though, 2, 5.5, 6.4, 7.2, 8.1, 8.5, 9, and 9.5 isn't all that bad. That covers a sizable chunk of the spectrum, especially when you consider that this 9.5 album is a truly unique specimen the likes of which the world has never seen, aside from the last Zeal and Ardor album, and I'm sure that the new Fates Warning and Whispered will wind up on a lot of "Album of the Year" lists, so those ratings are at least understandable. Now, the current front page might be a bad example, since half of those reviews are mine and I've been extremely varied lately, and the lower end is still not fully represented. I think part of the problem is that we now only have a handful of people regularly contributing reviews, and often people are only inspired to write if they particularly enjoy an album, so you're bound to wind up with a spate of positive reviews that, though only once in a while for the individual writers, are constantly in the readers' faces and make it look like the site as a whole doesn't have very discriminating tastes.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| Windrider Raureif Posts: 684 |
Written by Daniell on 12.07.2016 at 17:57 Well actually it is written something like 7 - good, 8 - very good, 9 - excellent, 10 - perfect. But for me this album was more than excellent, hence the rating. Also on my scale, "perfect" does not imply "impossible". 
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101 |
Written by Zap on 12.07.2016 at 18:54 Of course, not every album is exceptional. But since a reviewer can choose what to review, he can review exceptional albums exclusively. So if he gives five 9's out of seven reviewed albums, it doesn't mean his average rating is that high. It's all about the albums he chooses to review. As someone said on this forum - there is no such thing as an objective review. In my opinion, there is no such thing as an objective rating either. Picking on someone's or website's ratings is pointless.
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| LuciferOfGayness Account deleted |
LuciferOfGayness
Account deleted Written by Daniell on 12.07.2016 at 21:52 There is no such thing as an purely subjective review either. Make a topic of it and I will gladly debate
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| SoUnDs LiKe PoP Posts: 1060 |
Written by [user id=157444] on 12.07.2016 at 13:01 So he is cooler than me for spending a tremendously larger amount of time on the internet than I do? Well f*ck, I guess I'd better quit my job, drop out of my masters program, and stop spending hours at the gym so that I can up my metal blogging game!
---- I lift weights and listen to metal
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| LuciferOfGayness Account deleted |
LuciferOfGayness
Account deleted Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 13.07.2016 at 01:16 Metalheads going to the gym Thats probably why you guys think this is a classic metal album, it fits in the gym
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| Cynic Metalhead Ambrish Saxena Posts: 7562  |
Head back to the topic, folks. Anyway, it didn't create that much spark for me. I found this to be unnecessarily forced black metal effort.
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