Band:	Zeal & Ardor
Album:	Wake Of A Nation
Style:	Avantgarde black metal
Release date:	October 23, 2020
A review by:	musclassia

01. Vigil
02. Tuskegee
03. At The Seams
04. I Can't Breathe
05. Trust No One
06. Wake Of A Nation

If you couldn't tell from the title and eye-catching artwork, Wake Of A Nation is a politically charged EP.

That shouldn't really be a surprise to those that have followed the band; even before 2020, Zeal & Ardor's unique blend of soul and black metal focused lyrically on African-American slavery and the lives trapped by it, albeit through a somewhat Satanic perspective. Given the political and cultural turmoil in the USA in 2020 that has inspired plenty on the musical front, some of it better than others, the scene was set for Manuel Gagneux to shift his lyrical inspiration to more contemporary targets, including racially-motivated police brutality (made evident by the inverted cross/police baton mash-up in the artwork and track titles such as "I Can't Breathe") and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Whilst there is often an eagerness to label political lyrics in metal as contrived or cringeworthy, Gagneux's words avoid vague clichés and ably reflect the mindset of a man filled equally with fire and creativity. However, even more so than the lyrics, Wake Of A Nation is notable for offering good display of how Zeal & Ardor's sound has the potential to evolve in the future.

Devil Is Fine, the project's breakthrough album, made waves with its utterly unique combination of spirituals with extreme metal, and despite its bitesize length was impressively diverse. Stranger Fruit was a more complete record, but did see a clear template emerging for a 'standard' Zeal & Ardor song (opens with clean call-and-response singing, gradually works up to an extreme metal blast, cuts back before going hard again), one that was repeated several times and suggested that the band might quickly lose some of their appeal if they couldn't mix things up more consistently. There are only five full songs on Wake Of A Nation, but the diversity on display here offers some evidence that the project may be able to sustain its appeal for a while to come.

"Vigil" eschews the metal for the most part, instead seeing Gagneux singing soulfully whilst accompanied mainly by piano, with ebb and flow of tremolo guitars in the background. The gospel vibes to this song aren't a novelty for the project by any means, but they haven't quite been pushed to this extent on past efforts. "Tuskegee" sees the first bursts of aggression, opening with stomping riffs and vicious shrieks; it ultimately features exchanges between harsh metal and quiet choral singing, but implements them in a distinctive structure, working towards the clean hooks rather than relying on them to open proceedings. "At The Seams" leans closer structurally to what one might expect from a Zeal & Ardor song, but stands out from past efforts due to the subdued blues approach implemented vocally. This song offers solid evidence that even if the formula stays the same in terms of song structure, Gagneux is able to modify the tone and instrumental approach to maintain a feeling of freshness.

"Trust No One" starts off sounding the most familiar out of any of the tracks on Wake Of A Nation, but as it progresses, it enters a punishing doom trudge that offers feelings of malevolence seldom flirted with on previous songs. Add onto that the title track, a vocal and percussive vehicle that strips away the other instruments almost entirely to place the convoluted vocal overlaps and call-and-responses front and centre, and there is arguably as much diversity on Wake Of A Nation as there was across all of Stranger Fruit, despite being almost a third of its length. Lyrics aside, whilst I wouldn't say any of the tracks on Wake Of A Nation rank high in my list of favourite songs from this project so far, the range and competency at writing within that range here gives me optimism that we can expect plenty more quality material from Zeal & Ardor as the project progresses from being an exciting novelty into a sustainable killer act for years to come.