Zeal And Ardor: Devil Is Fine (Green Vinyl)

Devil Is Fine is the album that put Zeal & Ardor on the map and announced Manuel Gagneux as one of the most original voices in heavy music. Originally released in 2016, it took an idea that could have easily fallen apart in lesser hands and turned it into something genuinely striking: the collision of black metal, gospel, spirituals, blues, industrial textures, and harsh experimental noise. On paper it sounds unlikely. On record it feels completely natural.

What makes Devil Is Fine hit so hard is the tension at its core. This is not novelty music and it is not some gimmicky genre mash-up. The album is built around atmosphere, repetition, menace, and contrast. One moment it sounds like a field recording from another century, the next it drops into blastbeats, shrieks, and scorched distortion. That push and pull gives the whole record its power. It feels ritualistic, unsettling, and strangely hypnotic.

The title track remains the obvious entry point and for good reason. “Devil Is Fine” is sparse, eerie, and immediate, and it captures the album’s whole thesis in a few minutes. But the deeper you go, the more the record opens up. Tracks like “In Ashes,” “Blood In The River,” and “Come On Down” show how well Zeal & Ardor could move between haunting restraint and outright violence without breaking the mood. There is a rawness to the production that works in the album’s favour too. Nothing feels too polished. It sounds like it was dragged out of the dirt.

What really sets Devil Is Fine apart is that it created its own identity almost instantly. Plenty of bands fuse styles. Very few build an entire world around that fusion and make it feel this complete from the outset. This album did exactly that. It is provocative, memorable, and musically fearless, but it also backs that ambition up with songs that stick. For anyone interested in modern heavy music that actually sounds dangerous and different, Devil Is Fine is essential.