Manuel Gagneux has shared "Built on Ashes," the closing track of Zeal & Ardor's upcoming album Stranger Fruit. The swooning, melodically-driven song finds Gagneux channeling legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" — which protested American racism and the lynching of African Americans. From deep within a Darkthrone-esque inferno, Gagneux's eerie melodies just barely make it through the thick swarm of guitars, and the result is a tension-filled portrait of inherited trauma and inevitable death: "Like a strange fruit out of season/You are bound to die alone," Gagneux sings somberly, "And you will swing free in the breeze then."
Stranger Fruit is out June 8th. Before dropping "Built on Ashes," Gagneux shared two tracks showcasing the album's genre-bending fury: "Gravedigger's Chant," which arrived alongside a supremely creepy visual, and the equally-foreboding "Waste;" Earlier this year, he penned a one-off love letter to "Baphomet."
Read our interview with Zeal & Ardor's Manuel Gagneux.
