Manuel Gagneux has forged a career out of rattling black metal’s cage. In 2016, his project Zeal & Ardor debuted, pushing the genre well beyond its conventions by fusing it with African-American blues music. The resulting mixture made Manuel a fast star, lauded for his ability to innovate while still writing catchy tracks. But, unsurprisingly, many of extreme metal’s purists took offence, irritated by the perceived softening of their favourite underground sound.
Before Zeal & Ardor recently played London, Metal Hammer sat down with Manuel and broached the topic of musical elitism. The chat didn’t take long to go off the rails, as the names of everyone from Faith No More to music critic Anthony Fantano got pulled into the conversation. Read the discussion below, then scroll down to see the extended video version, exclusively available on Hammer’s Youtube channel.
What’s the worst Zeal & Ardor review you’ve ever read?
“There’s a couple of them. The TRVE black metal people are hyper-fond of us and they have some choice words. Ha ha! There are a couple impressions on 4chan which are also quite colourful. Anthony Fantano gave the self-titled album a four [out of 10].”
Really?
“Yeah, that stung. I don’t talk to him anymore since then. We never talked, but still. Ha ha ha!”
Do you butt heads with the idea of gatekeeping metal?
“Yeah, it’s just funny. Basically, they’re protecting their teen dream. ‘We were the coolest, most extreme teenagers,’ they’re really protective of that idea. To flip that on its head makes them really irritated and makes me really happy.”
Were you ever a gatekeeper?
“Yeah, I was absolutely a shithead! Like, ‘This is fucking too soft, you’re not listening to the proper grindcore bands.’ That kind of shit, which is silly, and now I just like music. It’s funny because the action to reaction ratio is such a good outcome. I can just make music that I like and it’ll piss a lot of people off that I don’t like. That’s kind of fun, not gonna lie.”
Do you ever get pushback from other black metal bands?
“Not really. I was in the proximity of [ex-Gorgoroth frontman] Gaahl and he didn’t torture me. Attila [Csihar] from Mayhem was fine. That was a good gig, so either we’re super TRVE or he’s no longer TRVE. That’s for you to decide, metal crowd! Ha ha!”
Have you had any fanboy moments?
“I’ve had a couple of fanboy moments. I’d never be able to talk to Devin Townsend without being a total geek. Same with Mike Patton and Björk. Haven’t met either of the last two though.”
Who’s on your touring bucket list?
“Touring with Heilung [in summer 2024] has shown me that we can be weird with other weird people. I don’t really care, as long as they’re interesting enough. Björk would be amazing, of course!”
That would be very cool. I’d pay to see that.
“I’d pay to do that. Björk, not really. Like, still pay us, but still. Ha ha ha!”
Watch the full interview – where Manuel also discusses the squat scene in hometown Basel, new album Greif, and Zeal & Ardor’s first show – below.
