25. Zeal & Ardor - "Zeal & Ardor"

Zeal & Ardor are, when all is said and done, a one-trick pony. They have one concept, and they are milking it. That is meshing the intensity of black metal with the organic primordialness of vocal-driven delta Blues. They are three albums in, and it really should have run out of steam by now and become boring and repetitive. However, and it is a massive massive however, somehow they are still managing to find endless seams of creativity to mine from this one simple idea. 

This self-titled release doesn’t seem to retread any of their previous territories even though it still sticks very close to the core principles of the central concept. It still effectively explores how dynamic and evocative black metal sounds when you let the vocals rather than the guitars lead it. It is one of those albums that sounds like nothing else because frankly there is nobody else doing metal in this sort of way.

It has a rootsy earthiness to it that seems to strip away all our music’s pretensions. What we end up with is something that feels pure and unrefined. By reverting back to the nucleus of what created rock music in the first place, they have managed to create something that seems unburdened and unbridled. Whatever it is, it is simply stunning.