Zeal & Ardor Release New Live Video For 'Blood In The River'

With a few live shows now under their belt, Zeal & Ardor return to the live film clip environment once more. 

This past April and May marked the first ever maiden live shows for Zeal & Ardor as a proper band, with the group performing in parts of the UK and Europe. Forever making myself and many others around the world jealous that we have yet to see this band live and in the flesh, Zeal & Ardor have a new live clip out today for their ominous and foreboding song, 'Blood In The River'.

Mixing blues, slave-chants, electronics, audio samples, dark religiously-orientated lyrics, and immensely bleak imagery with black metal instrumentation and screams, the band and their Swiss-American songwriter/frontman, Manuel Gagneux run through the Satanic track ("A good god is a dead one") in glorious fashion. Gagneux also commented on the song, saying that it's "partially about the Stono Rebellion and partially about self-liberation from religion."

Now, for those who don't know, the Stono Rebellion occurred on September 9th, 1739 in the then colony of Southern Carolina and was one of the largest slave uprisings seen in a British mainland colony, with 40+ whites and 44 blacks killed. Some dark American history for a dark song from an album whose core theme is emancipation and slavery? How fitting!

'Blood In The River' comes off the back of 2016's brilliant 'Devil Is Fine' full-length, with this performance being recorded at the Off The Road Studios in Leipzig, Germany. My favourite part of this clip is the video's incredibly likeable German announcer Axel Thielmann (and yes, there are English subtitles), but my least favourite thing about this clip is the fast and constant transitions and edits used. If you've seen the previous live sessions of the dark-Southern riffage of 'Don't You Dare' and the deliciously dark mood of 'Devil Is Fine', then you'll know how much sheer atmosphere this band can create when they step into a room together and the cameras and mics are on. But holy shit, the fast edits here nearly kill vibe completely.

Either way, live clips like this still keep me highly invested and excited enough for the inevitable day that Zeal & Ardor announce an Australian tour. And good god, I hope that comes real soon!

You can read my interview with frontman Manuel Gagneux himself right here.