LIVE REVIEW: Zeal & Ardor @ Trinity Centre, Bristol

The Trinity Centre is a most curious venue. Slightly off the beaten track from Bristol’s city centre yet not hard to miss – it IS a converted church, after all – it’s often more associated with arts events than gigs despite the excellent acoustics and large room on the ground floor. Nevertheless, the likes of DEVIN TOWNSEND, POLYPHIA and even SUNN O))) have graced the stage there in recent years and tonight it’s the turn of ZEAL & ARDOR, returning to the South West for the first time since their triumphant showing at ArcTanGent during the summer.

Before them though comes HERIOT, the Birmingham/Swindon upstarts who have been absolutely everywhere over the last 12 months; at this point, it’s probably been harder to miss them than catch them at least once. The fifty minutes between doors and their start time means there’s a healthy portion of the sold out room in front of them and although there is an early disconnect – no one is really sure whether to appreciate them, move about or let them be – once they’re three songs in and thundering through Near Vision, the heads starts banging with force and the momentum never stops from there. Despite being under the weather, the band are having a blast with their no-nonsense set, blasting their way through Enter The Flesh, Coalescence and Profound Morality with very little chat in between. If they keep this head of steam going, they’ll be dubbed the UK’s answer to CODE ORANGE in the not too distant future.

Rating: 8/10

“The more astute of you out there will notice we’re a couple of members down,” says Manuel Gagneux, frontman and innovator of ZEAL & ARDOR, “but we decided that instead of cancelling the show, we’d play it instead”. Indeed, the avant-garde metallers are missing both backing vocalists tonight – Denis Wagner and Marc Obrist – through illness, but by the time Manuel addresses this, the streamlined four piece have already dropped a stunning Götterdämmerung and blistering Row Row, so it hasn’t mattered a jot that the additional voices are pre-recorded. Backed by a stellar light show, the group are on top form, running through a mammoth 20-song set that spans their entire career. Gravedigger’s Chant is sung louder than the choirs at Bristol’s Cathedral on a Sunday morning and Golden Liar threatens to bring the roof in with its intensity. The biggest hit, however, is Blood In The River from their 2016 debut Devil Is Fine, a rousing number that grows in stature and receives rapturous applause.

Feed The Machine – described by Manuel as “the angry song”, lives up to its billing and the deeps cuts of Tuskegee and Trust No One, from the band’s 2020 Wake Of A Nation EP, are given as much praise as their studio counterparts. By the time ZEAL & ARDOR reach the hypnotic chanting of Devil Is Fine‘s title track, the room is fully under their spell and a special energy runs through the throng – this band, who started through an innocent question by Manuel on the 4chan forums, are conquering the metal underground at an astonishing pace; it won’t be long at all before they’re in the UK academies and able to bring a large production along for good measure. A triumphant Baphoment closes a show that, for all the rain outside, has burned brighter than anywhere else in the city tonight.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Bristol from Ceece Photography here: 

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