A very long day ends with the review of a very odd record…
Disc 1920 is…Greif
Artist: Zeal & Ardor
Year of Release: 2024
What’s up with the Cover? Behold the legendary Vogel Gryff itself, in all its badassery!
If you don’t know what the Vogel Gryff is, then I encourage you to look it up, where you will also learn about the Wild Maa and the Leu and many other fascinating facts besides.
Or maybe you would prefer to just live in a state of bewilderment over just what Zeal & Ardor are going on about – which would be a perfectly appropriate way to explore this record.
How I Came To Know It: I loved Zeal & Ardor’s 2018 album “Stranger Fruit” and since then I check in on them when they release something new. They don’t always grab me, but for whatever reason “Greif” was able to once again catch my attention.
How It Stacks Up: I have two Zeal & Ardor records and this a distance second in the rankings.
Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4
Where does something go from strangely compelling to merely strange? It’s a dangerous line that is as jagged as a lightning bolt, and on “Greif” Zeal & Ardor are determined to ride it.
Categorizing Zeal & Ardor is an impossible task. They mix chants, prog, metal and every other damned thing that is remotely jarring into a chunky staccato soup of sound. It’s some of the most fearless music you’ll hear and on “Greif” it challenged me from the very beginning.
The beginning here starts before you hear a single note, with the decision to apparently misspell the album title. Turns out it wasn’t misspelled at all, but (after much internet searching) references a Swiss word for “griffin” and a fascinating festival in the town of Basel. So there you go – not a single note in and already searching the interweb for meaning, are we?
Slightly irritated at knowing none of this on my own, I nevertheless gamely sallied forth to listen to the multitude of sounds, soundscapes and song structures that awaited me on “Greif”.
My journey would encounter Soundgarden like riffs, proggy drum-driven metal that would make Tool proud, and songs that landed somewhere between church hymn and what could be the movie soundtrack for a futuristic take on the Fall of the House of Usher. If you think Zeal & Ardor are embracing their freak flag on “Stranger Fruit” then “Greif” is them flying that flag on Jupiter.
All of which initially led me to this place where I was undecided about the most key consideration – do I like it? Would I recommend it to you, dear reader, with my reputation on the line?
From a purely creative perspective, the critic in me is impressed. This stuff is quite the admixture of styles, patched together like Frankenstein’s monster – deliberate and grotesque. Zeal & Ardor are playing with sound, but like a mad scientist, they want you to see them at their work, and to be appreciated for the mad genius of the result.
The music lover in me had nothing to prove other than to sit back and decide if I was having a good time. Some of this record led me to the negative. It was work to sort through, and the deliberately jarring approach to the songs is consistently up in your grill. Even when I was digging it (which was often) I couldn’t help but feel I was being messed with.
But then other times, I was giddy with the feeling of discovery. Where would this go next? Fortunately, the songs go often enough to melodic structures that draw you in. Sure it’s a “draw you in” of early Red Hot Chili Peppers crossed with Tool, crossed with the Alan Parson's Project, but I like all those bands.
In the end, the record won me over. The playing is tight, the vocals by lead singer and mad creator Manuel Gagneux are rich in tone and highly adaptive (they have to be). And while Zeal & Ardor may insist on mixing a dozen styles and approaches to not just music, but to sound generally, they curate those choices with care. Yes, it is clever, but clever with purpose. The result will have you moshing or tapping your toes – just don’t try to predict when it will happen; just be ready to lean in when it comes.
At no point does this record give you a moment to consider and digest what has just happened. You have to surrender yourself to it and just enjoy whatever whim the ole Z&A brigade are whipping up for these few bars.
I think it would be very easy to hate this record, but like Frankenstein’s Monster, you should reject that instinct. This album is a monster, but it is a monster with a very large musical vocabulary, and the soul of a poet. You just have to close your eyes and listen without judgment, and you’ll find love in your heart for what you hear.
Best tracks: Nope. Not gonna do that this time. It is all one curious mix of “what now?” and picking out individual tracks just doesn’t feel right.
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