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.
