Live Review: Zeal and Ardor with Zetra at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (22/09/2024)

A sunny Sunday turns into a misty night as Zeal and Ardor arrive in London accompanied by the mysterious Zetra as part of their latest European tour.

Having released their fourth studio album, Greif, on the 23rd of August, Zeal and Ardor have been out championing that album, bringing some new songs to our ears to go along with the familiar bangers from previous albums. Zeal and Ardor are a band who changed the face of alternative music for many and a band who are one of the most creative and thought provoking bands in existence today. When I first heard these guys, back when it was a solo project, I remember feeling for the first time in years that I was listening to something new, something that had never been done before.

The Swiss avant-garde metal band started and led by Manuel Gagneux, a Swiss-American musician, began life mixing sounds of African-American spirituals with black metal. Sounds simple enough but it’s more complex than that – it’s the way it is done, not the doing that is special. The subtle evolution of songs, the emotion, the atmosphere all delivered through a man who has vocals that astound in all styles. As albums and tours have gone by, Zeal and Ardor have evolved too now delivering music that mixes genres from that original sound to songs that are more rock, songs that have a core beat, songs that have gothic undertones and often songs, that contain all of these elements together.

That evolution was necessary. There is no way Zeal and Ardor could have survived even this long if they had stayed strictly within that very small niche they had carved for themselves on their first album, Devil Is Fine. They had to expand and music is better off for it.

So yeah, I’m a big fan of this band and seeing them at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire will make it, I think, the seventh time seeing them live with the most recent being roughly a year ago, when they owned the Sophie Lancaster Stage at the 2023 rendition of Bloodstock Open Air. London has been a little bit like a second home to the band and sadly for many, luckily for us, London is the only UK date Zeal and Ardor have on this tour.

Sunday night gigs hit different though – many of us will have work the next day, many will be watching their drinking for that reason – something I now regretfully wish I had considered doing – and thinking about not missing last trains and buses back home. Early doors see the Empire opening at 18:30 with the gig due to end at 10:00 so we head there early to get some seats upstairs as we have my, too young for the floor, daughter coming along for her first Zeal and Ardor show. It’s pleasing to see that despite those Sunday challenges, the venue is filled nicely. Not sold out, but it has sold well.

A quick note on the venue before we get to the music though and despite the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire being a little out of the way, and also not a venue we have been to a whole lot, I must say that every time I have been there, I have been impressed. The old school theatre was made for sound and the sound there is great. It’s large with great views from upstairs, amazing lighting and has bars on every floor. It is a great venue.

The show gets underway around 19:15 with Zetra, a band I know next to nothing about and, having read up on them a bit, think I’m probably not meant to know anything about them such is their mysterious ways.

They seem popular though and arrive to a wave of synth and spoken word. With barely an acknowledgment to the crowd, they get up on two boxes and start hammering out tunes. Being a two piece, with programmed drums, it takes my mind a bit of getting used to it. I’m just more familiar with the traditional make up of a band and will always prefer a live drummer over anything else. I did enjoy them for the most part though. The synth is great and the vocals are strong. There are strong atmospherics and plenty of hard hitting riffs to get your head moving.

Visually, Zetra look like a black metal band, sporting gothic outfits and corpse paint but sonically, they are a million miles away from that genre. That makes for a curious vibe and it is cool that they challenge your mind in ways you maybe didn’t know it needed challenging. I don’t know if Zetra are trying to make a statement – I certainly don’t understand the statement if they are. Maybe they are just doing what they want to do, and having fun with it?

That’s cool and watching them get down and hide behind their boxes for atmospheric sections, then pop back up and get back on the boxes to bring themselves back into the song, is certainly interesting. I also found it entertaining how they didn’t talk to the crowd once, and left at the end of their set without even the smallest acknowledgment of the crowd – almost like they were never there.

There are certainly a lot of elements I like about Zetra and songs like Shatter the Mountain and Call of the Void are strong but I will need to listen to them a bit more to see where I really stand. I do still miss the live drummer and seeing a band so static isn’t wrong, it’s just not something I am used to. I think they showcased themselves well though, surely picking up plenty of new fans as well as plenty of people, like me, who heard enough to at least want to investigate them a bit more.

The reason I am here though is Zeal and Ardor and even after all the times I have seen them, as the lights go down and the stage fills with smoke, I am genuinely excited. It came as no surprise to me, and will have come as no surprise to anyone who has seen them before that they were once again absolutely immense. The stage literally swallowed up in smoke, with piercing lights created a creepy vibe as the cloaked band appear like ghosts in the mist. It’s a stunning visual and adds a huge amount to the overall show.

Zeal and Ardor have a larger back catalogue of bangers to tap into now which makes the show more exciting as you don’t know what track list they are going to bring. It also means that personal favourites may not get played. I’m going to have to hold some sort of farewell ceremony for Come On Down which has been firmly dropped from sets, sadly. Luckily though, there are so many songs I love that I am always going to be satisfied and it was nice to see some tracks played here that I haven’t heard live a whole lot. And of course, with Greif only recently out, there are plenty of songs to here for the first time too.

After the intro, the band launch into Wake Of  A Nation, then into the banger that is Götterdämmerung. What a tune that song is and it sounds immense and really heavy here. Not a band for small talk, we get track after track from across their catalogue with Ship On Fire, then Erase following next. Every song is delivered passionately and skilfully with the drums echoing, the guitars piercing and the vocals, from Manuel and the superb additional vocalists, just hitting you right in the feels. Heads are banging, people are clapping and as the smoke continues to fill the stage while an immense light show delights, you feel like you are part of something special.

The small amounts of crowd interaction from Manuel is hard to hear clearly upstairs – he isn’t exactly known as an extroverted front man and doesn’t appear overly comfortable talking to the crowd – but that honestly just makes him even more endearing. Besides, we aren’t here for a chat, we are here for music and that is where Zeal and Ardor excel. Across the 16 tracks long main portion of the set, we are treated to amazing songs performed immaculately. It’s actually 9 tracks in before we get anything off of Greif when Kilonova gets it’s first airing for me. Blood In The River, Golden Liar, Run, Death To The Holy, Feed the Machine and of course, the immeasurable, Devil Is Fine brings the main set to a close and to rapturous applause and chants.

The band look pleased, the crowd in awe but it’s early yet so we know there is an encore coming.

That encore gives us another 4 tracks in Trust No One, Built On Ashes, I Caught You and the big closer, Clawing Out and and brings the curtain down on yet another intense and emotional Zeal and Ardor performance. The crowd are desperate for more and chant loudly to try to get the band to come back for one more song. It goes on so long, and the lights stay down for long enough that you think it might actually work and we might get another track. Sadly, we don’t and eventually the lights come on and we head off with the sounds of one of the most immense live performing bands of our generation ringing in our ears and with beaming smiles on our faces.

Musically and vocally exceptional and I can’t overstate the importance of the light show’s addition to the overall experience, Zeal and Ardor are an insanely creative and talented band. Something they prove time and time again, with every release and every performance including here.