ZEAL & ARDOR: Greif (ALTERNATIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

How difficult it is for an artist who has the impression of going round in circles to renew himself... The problem was already apparent on the previous album. The surprise effect was gone, Zeal & Ardor were looking for new musical colors to flesh out their avant-garde metal, and the result was pretty convincing. For this new album, Manuel Cagneux decided to open the project's doors wide. On the one hand, by inviting the whole band to participate in the compositions, something the multi-instrumentalist had never done before, and on the other, by including in his music many influences other than the black metal and negro spirituals of the early days. The result? “Greif” is an album so eclectic as to be frustrating.

So, has everything changed in the Swiss band's music? No, and thankfully not. Fans of the early days will be able to hold on to a few tracks reminiscent of “Devil Is Fine” ('Hide In Shade') and “Stranger Fruit” ('Go Home My Friend'), but on the whole, Zeal & Ardor 's music has mellowed, sometimes inflicting us with tracks lacking any real dynamic ('Clawing Out', 'Disease').

Of course, the themes dear to Manuel Cagneux remain firmly anchored in the general atmosphere of “Greif”: resistance to oppression, class struggle... But the symbolism of the Griffin - a mythical creature, a hybrid of lion, bird and snake, and effigy of the city of Basel, which gives the album its title - has far less impact than the struggle of African-American slaves. And the whole album is affected by this, so much so that Zeal & Ardor themselves don't really seem to know how to connect the tracks.

From then on, the pieces (all quite short) follow one another with no real thread, revealing influences that are often all too obvious: Tool ('Kilonova'), Queen Of The Stone Age-style desert rock ('Thrill', 'Sugarcoat'), and even Kavinsky-style electro synthwave with the very anachronistic 'Une Ville Vide', which really does seem to come out of nowhere.

In itself, “Greif” is not a bad album, and tracks such as 'The Bird, The Lion And The Wildkin' and 'Fend You Off' remind us just how much Zeal & Ardor have become a benchmark in avant-garde metal. But the Swiss are so intent on diversifying their music that we're left wanting more, frustrated by an opus that has all the makings of a transitional album, but nothing of the album we've come to expect from a band that has managed to arouse so much interest in recent years. - Official website

ZEAL & ARDOR

GREIF

AUTRE LABEL

ALTERNATIVE METAL