Alan Lomax, Tom Waits, Wendy Carlos, and Limp Bizkit walk into a bar...

September 8, 2018 5:16 AM

Do you encounter a lot of people accusing you of cultural appropriation?
A few. But funnily enough it's usually more from the black metal side of things.

Zeal & Ardor's album Stranger Fruit is a follow-up to last year's Devil is Fine [previously], continuing with its practice of fusing nu- and black metal with spirituals and just as wildly good. The music videos to the first two sings, Intro and Gravedigger's Chant, do a wonderful job of setting the mood.
posted by rorgy (14 comments total)

Zeal & Ardor are every bit as harrowing and awesome live as they are recorded, if not more so. If the crowd at their Shoreditch show in June is anything to go by, furthermore, they/he are going to break big, far beyond the usual haunts of black metal. Thanks for the link!
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:59 AM on September 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

From the article:

> outsider artists like Tom Waits

Tom Waits is not an outsider artist, come the fuck on.
posted by kenko at 9:59 AM on September 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

BTW, if you like this music, I highly recommend Stara Rzeka, especially the album Cień chmury nad ukrytym polem—not gospel + nu + black metal but more like folk + blackened metal.
posted by kenko at 11:38 AM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Gravediggaz?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 11:57 AM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Zeal & Ardor is deeply weird. Parts make me kind of uncomfortable (sonic sensibility and subject matter) but definitely worth listening to the whole album if you like rock and/or roll.

Also

>Gravediggaz?

Can't the worst depravities of the '90s die already? I resent the Limp Bizkit inclusion. Type O Negative or Sepultura would have been a better fit.
posted by cult_url_bias at 12:36 PM on September 8, 2018

They're doing show near me next month, and I bought my ticket a couple of months ago. Very excited!
posted by paper chromatographologist at 1:56 PM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also, metafilter is absolutely the only reason I've ever even heard of Z&A, so thank you metafilter.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 1:56 PM on September 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is a pretty great article, but I gotta say the uh editorial decision to put the questions in ALL CAPS was kind of an odd one. It gave the whole thing a weird intensity. Like PLEASE, TINY MUSIC HUMAN, REVEAL ALL YOU KNOW TO THE MIGHTY REVOLV-OR
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 3:02 PM on September 8, 2018

They're doing show near me next month, and I bought my ticket a couple of months ago. Very excited!

This made me check to see if they were coming my way, and they are! So now I've got tickets! Thanks for the idea!
posted by rorgy at 3:07 PM on September 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's a show in October near me! This looks good.
posted by gryftir at 9:01 AM on September 9, 2018

I listened to Stranger Fruit when it first came out and it didn't immediately grab me like Devil is Fine did; but a good reminder to maybe give it another go. Thanks to this thread I also found out that Z&A will be making a stop close to me, so looking forward to seeing them live!
posted by invokeuse at 10:57 AM on September 9, 2018

Live show update: this was a very good idea.
posted by rorgy at 9:14 PM on September 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

YES. Just came back from their live show. I mean I expected it to be good, but not quite this level of melt my face / accept the Devil as my lord and savior sort of good. Manuel has an intensity and stage presence that I honestly didn't expect from someone who noodled around in his home studio until he started a musical project thanks to a dare on 4chan.

He really put together a great touring band too. His bassist and backing singers were standout awesome.

I think this may actually go in my Top 5.
posted by xthlc at 9:36 PM on September 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Just saw the live show last night. Rocked out. Bought a purple logo t-shirt. It ruled.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 11:39 AM on October 1, 2018