It’s a busy month for Zeal & Ardor. The band are preparing for a series of live shows next month (including a London headline show & a slot at Download Festival) as well as the June 8th release of their highly anticipated, second album, Stranger Fruit.
A third new song from that record is released, titled Built On Ashes. The lyrics hark back to Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, declaring, “like a strange fruit out of season / you are bound to die alone / and you will swing free in the breeze then.” This underlying topic is picked up in a recent interview with The Guardian.
Zeal & Ardor mastermind Manuel Gagneux comments, “Here’s our last single before ‘Stranger Fruit’ comes out in its entirety. ‘Built On Ashes’ is the album’s closing track and stands out as a more sombre track, acting as a farewell of sorts. We hope you like it… there’s a storm out there.”
LISTEN TO BUILT ON ASHES
Described by Upset magazine as “a compelling listen”, eerie first single Gravedigger’s Chant was released on Good Friday. To hear it, visit: https://lnk.to/Gravedigger & https://youtu.be/ARM8cD8Xyno.
Last month, the band shared more extreme track, Waste. Listen at: https://lnk.to/Waste & https://youtu.be/sbMoTdr1k1Y.
All three tracks are available now on all streaming services and as instant grat tracks when pre-ordering the new album.
Stranger Fruit will be released on June 8th in multiple formats, including CD, cassette, vinyl, and digital download/stream. For vinyl fans, there’s a 2LP 180g gatefold vinyl or a 2LP limited deluxe 180g triple gatefold purple vinyl.
PRE-ORDER STRANGER FRUIT HERE
The diverse yet cohesive nature of the sixteen tracks on Stranger Fruit is designed to encourage the listener to dig a little deeper and find their own meaning in its words. In contrast to first LP Devil Is Fine, these songs are deliberately intended to play off each other both lyrically and musically. While the record seethes with justifiable rage, its wider-reaching aim is to unify and inspire action, not to divide and create inertia. Hope tempers bleak melancholy. Superficially, the album tells small isolated stories, but there are also references to the Goetia, Yoruba, and obscure occult literature and history.
Mixing blues, gospel, and soul with harsher music has opened up a world of possibilities for Gagneux. Previously creating as a one man solo effort, the immense interest and critical acclaim Zeal & Ardor attracted upon release of debut album Devil Is Fine, has led to the project becoming a fully-fledged, internationally-touring band. After months hidden away, crafting the new songs for Stranger Fruit, Gagneux entered the studio with producer Zebo Adam and mixer Kurt Ballou (Converge, Kvelertak, Nails). While the finished sound is larger and heavier, it is still unmistakably Zeal & Ardor.
Zeal & Ardor is the one-man brainchild of Manuel Gagneux, a Swiss-American formerly based in New York City. His approach draws on an alternate history and stems from two thoughts: Christianity was imposed upon American slaves, just as it was imposed in Norway, and black metal in the ’90s grew as a rebellion to monotheism. What would have happened if American slaves had rebelled in the same way? Or put bluntly: What would satanic spirituals sound like? First album Devil Is Fine was released globally in February 2017. Zeal & Ardor have been generating significant buzz ever since, with accolades piling up from both musical peers and international media, including Noisey, Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Kerrang!, The Independent, Metal Hammer, Upset, Brooklyn Vegan, and many more. Set to instill a universal and shared rage, new album Stranger Fruit will be released June 8th, 2018.
STRANGER FRUIT TRACK LISTING:
01. Intro
02. Gravedigger’s Chant
03. Servants
04. Don’t You Dare
05. Fire Of Motion
06. The Hermit
07. Row Row
08. Ship On Fire
09. Waste
10. You Ain’t Coming Back
11. The Fool
12. We Can’t Be Found
13. Stranger Fruit
14. Solve
15. Coagula
16. Built On Ashes
