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Review: Zeal and Ardor/Heriot, Trinity
Yet another act lumbered with that ‘The Future of British metal’ tag, Heriot take a grab-bag of extreme metal influences and meld them into a collection of short, sharp, angry songs, the like of which probably haven’t been heard at the Trinity since it was a punk venue back in the early eighties.
The presence of a female guitarist/vocalist is certain to invite comparisons with Venom Prison and, perhaps more aptly, Bristol’s very own Svalbard, and they benefit from a big, beefy bass sound that’s rare in the genre.
is needed now More than ever
Heriot also uphold the great metal tradition of aggressive delivery leavened by softly-spoken politeness between songs. Expect to see them moving up to a headlining tour soon.
Bringing Satan to a church, albeit a deconsecrated one that has never before played host to so many people adorned with Lucifer sigils, is clearly a prospect that Zeal and Ardor relish as the robed Swiss-American avant-metallers open with Church Burns. But hang on a minute – there’s only four of the buggers.
Turns out that the two backing vocalists are sick (“Not in a funny way, but in a fucked-up way,” explains droll frontman Manuel Gagneux), but rather than cancel Z&A decided to go ahead with the show using backing tapes.
Gagneux’s schtick of combining gospel, soul, blues and spirituals with black metal has produced one of the most distinctive sounds in modern music, and appears to be winning a crossover audience. But as a four-piece, the metal wins out – much to the delight of this capacity crowd, who eagerly obey the instruction to join in to make up for the absent vocalists.
The full-throttle Götterdämmerung sounds heavier than ever, as does Death to the Holy, while Gravedigger’s Chant, Row Row and Devil Is Fine prompt mighty singalongs.
The bulk of the set is drawn from Zeal and Ardor’s current, self-titled album, underlining the fact that this project is very much a work in progress, which is continually being developed and refined.
But for the last song it’s back to old favourite Baphomet – a hymn of praise to everybody’s favourite goaty deity. And with a cheery “Hail fuckin’ Satan!” they’re gone again.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: November 2022
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