October 5th, 2022

The moment and time, for Zeal & Ardor to finally headline in North America since 2018, brought a stellar and packed crowd to The Echoplex.  A grand mixture of Gospel, Blues, Avant-Garde, and Metal, Zeal & Ardor’s fantastic and unique musical sound, is something strongly encouraged to capture with your own eyes.  Catching both San Diego and Los Angeles shows, alongside Imperial Triumphant and Sylvaine as direct support, you got a sensational, eclectic lineup, something enjoyable and different for everyone.  And, for the next 70-minutes, the 19-track set ringed prestigious, captivating, and Extreme music, for this grand occasion.

            With roughly the first half of Zeal & Ardor’s set consisting of the more upbeat, ‘sing-a-long’ songs, the vibe of the room immediately clapping along and moving their heads to the embracing, soulful singing sounds of Martin Gagneux performing “Church Burns.”  The 30s style of vocal work, that era of Soul, combined with that menacing distortion after the verse, gave you a slight glimpse of what Zeal & Ardor were all about.  One of my friends years ago described them as, “’O Brother, Where Art Thou-Metal”, and that fits quite well, I would say.  The incredible lyrical rhythm opening “Blood in the River”, highlights the dynamic sound and uniqueness that certainly they hold over about anyone else.  “A good god is a dead one, a good god is the one that brings the fire”, capsulating Zeal & Ardor’s honest, stripped-down interpretation of humanity and the horrors that’s laid the foundation of Earth’s chaotic and twisted atrocities.  For who I listen to and am into band wise, it’s rare that the vocal/lyric aspect is what I focus and gravitate towards to the most, but for how insanely different and beautiful sounding, it’s profound and quite fortunate we have them on our side.

            Usually having 6 members, Martin announced that Denis Wagner and Marc Obrist were ill and unable to attend the tour, leaving Zeal & Ardor as a 4-piece.  Some would criticize the backup vocals used in the PA because of that situation, however, with Martin as your vocalist and guitar player, all it did was add that boosting level of character to the words.  “Death to the Holy”’s intro had the Echoplex clap along from the get-go, a reminder of the type of fan that the band can draw in.  Metal, acapella, groove, Soul, all wrapped in under 4-minutes.  Tight, palm-muted tremolo picking, start-and-stopping waving riff, alongside Tiziano Volante’s hypnotic effect-filled lead, matching the intensity of Martin’s pummeling sound.  With so many types of songs, themes, concepts to work with and to choose from, you become curious to see what type of song they can create next.  “Erase”, the track tonight that had the loudest boom and crippling heaviness, bombarded the crowd into a whirling frenzy of mosh, showing that Zeal & Ardor can turn the extreme level to a 10, when called upon.

Zachary Ilya Ezrin of Imperial Triumphant, in his glorious stage attire, joined the band during “J-M-B”, in which his fantastic, dissonant guitar wizardry, fit quite genuinely on-stage.  Moving the most around, and just seemingly having a blast performing, bassist Lukas Kurmann matching the energy from the rabid fans packing the front of the stage, even after performing this length of songs.  Zeal & Ardor’s tracks are mostly under the 4-minute range, so the amount they can perform while headlining, as well as the uniqueness of each song able to make its musical point, without feeling like it’s too much, worked well with the amount of time performing.  A drastic difference from the times seeing them open for Opeth/Mastodon and Baroness/Deafheaven, the strength of their set significantly improved, leaving the audience full, and still wanting seconds and thirds.

            With tonight’s show, other sold-out shows on this tour, I’m wondering when that time will be when Zeal & Ardor play even larger venues, but thankfully, we get to see them in this club setting, hopefully for longer.  That intimacy is simply different, on the club show level.  A wonderous, headlining performance from Zeal & Ardor.              

1. Church Burns

2. Götterdämmerung

3. Ship on Fire

4. Row Row

5. Blood in the River

6. Gravedigger's Chant

7. Run

8. We Can't Be Found

9. Tuskegee

10. Feed the Machine

11. Golden Liar

12. Death to the Holy

13. Trust No One

14. Erase

15. Don't You Dare

16. Devil Is Fine

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17. J-M-B

18. I Caught You

19. Baphomet