Zeal & Ardor at the crescent ballroom Phoenix AZ 12/15/2024Zeal & Ardor are one of the generational bands that only come around so often. Their unique sound of blending slave songs with black metal. I was music doom scrolling in 2017 when I originally came across ‘Devil is fine’. I instantly hooked and left with wanting more as that was the only song I could find on Spotify. Then in 2018 I was hanging with a longtime friend when he suggested I check out this band, and he said I can’t really explain it, you’ll just have to listen. It just so happen to be Zeal & Ardor and I was beyond ecstatic that someone that I knew loved them too. Well 4 full length albums and one live album later this band has worked its way through the trenches and climbed to the top with a chilly following! The crescent ballroom is such an intimate setting. It may seem weird seeing Zeal & Ardor and Gaerea there, it made also made sense. While both bands are extremely heavy and intense, they both offer a sense of calmness.
Gaerea as always puts on one amazing show with lead singer Guilherme Henriques slithering their way around stage. Seeing them live is an experience all in itself. Going from melodic black metal to traditional black metal. They have a strong but dark presence when on stage that pulls you in and doesn’t let go until the final note.
It was finally time for Zeal & Ardor! Opening up the show with ’Wake of a nation’ to get the crowds blood pumping. Then they jnstantly went right into the crushing song “Götterdämmerung” which had the entire venue head banging. From the couple of times I’ve seen Zeal it was was definitely a plus to see that their stage production was stepped up a couple of notches. Their giant logo in the background with lights coming off of it and the numerous led bean lights surrounding the stage brought everything together. Manuel is the type of singer to let his music do the talking as he doesn’t ever say much during the set. Which isn’t a bad thing. He did however take a moment to thank everyone for coming out and said “thank you for supporting this weird band from the UK”. Manuels voice is not only haunting but soulful. Watching Zeal live is like having an outer body experience. The passion, the soul, the pain, and the suffering comes pouring out onto that stage.
Setlist:
Wake of a Nation
Götterdämmerung
Ship on FireErase
Gravedigger’s Chant
Kilonova
Blood in the River
Run
Tuskegee
Golden Liar
Sugarcoat
Death to the Holy
To my ilk
Feed the Machine
Devil Is Fine
Trust No One
Built on AshesI
Caught You
Clawing out
