Zeal & Ardor is the brainchild of Swiss-American musician Manuel Gagneux. It started as an online project where Gagneux was seeking feedback about blending two musical genres that don’t traditionally go together. After receiving feedback, he decided to go with the unlikely pairing of black metal with spirituals. What was originally intended as a one-off, resulted in three full-length studio albums, including the recently released self-titled album.
Gagneux made the following statement concerning the album: ”Lyrically, it’s a continuation of the alternate history narrative we have going on—what if American slaves had turned to Satan instead of God?—Where Devil Is Fine was about life in captivity and Stranger Fruit was about the escape this record is about the many things that come after. Being on the run, clandestine ruminations and grand plan.”
As in his previous efforts, the lyrics touch upon themes of religious hypocrisy and race relations. Even though it might be written from the perspective of the African American experience, as a black man in a predominately white country and music genre, racism is something that Gagneux had to deal with on a personal level.
One of the album’s more aggressive tracks is Götterdämmerung. Gagneux said the following about the tune’s intent. “This is the title of a movement in a Wagner opera, and Wagner was heavily used by not-so-great people in the ’30s and ’40s in Germany. So I wanted to reappropriate and reclaim Wagner, even though he himself was a huge dick, too—but dude wrote brilliant music.”
Politicians co-opting music for their agenda is a trend that continued. For example, back in the 1980s, Bruce Springsteen spoke up when politicians such as Ronald Reagan tried to adopt “Born in the USA” as a campaign theme (missing the point of the lyrics in the process). During Trump’s presidency, many artists spoke up concerning him using their music during rallies. Neil Young in particular composed an open letter voicing his displeasure over Trump using his political protest anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
Even though music has sadly been used as a propaganda tool, it is also a powerful weapon in promoting change,