Zeal & Ardor have shared another single for the upcoming fourth album GREIF. Joining the string of singles that the band have release, their new single “Fend You Off” is another demonstration of the vast diverse sounds that will appear on GREIF.
“Fend You Off” takes their trademark metal sound back to its roots in the blues and spirituals. Kicking the track off with a glockenspiel rhythm that sets the mood, vocalist Manuel Gagneux chimes with the first verse. The track builds up with uses of call and response, giving it the atmosphere of tension and mystery. The song continuously builds up the tension, increasing the pace of the song, before coming to head when the blues inspired backbeat of the song is it met with Gagneux’s guttural vocals. The song closes with the melody of the glockenspiel, bringing the song back to the nursey rhyme of the instrument.
The music video for this track continues the motif of Greek folklore seen in the video for “Clawing Out”. Directed by Miro Widmer and Christian Taro, the video is shot in the perspective of a young woman in the drive seat looking tense and anxious. Here she is given the descriptor of “The Descendant”, which is defined as ‘Heirs of the Gryphon, held fast in their situation. One may rise bearing the light.’ With the uplifting nature of “Fend You Off”, each of GREIF’s songs could be alluded to different mythical creatures depicted in folklore. With “Fend You Off” the woman in the driver seat is experiencing tension as she looks onwards in the front, but will come out of the path renewed in her confidence.
Delving more into the process for GREIF, Gagneux details the addition of “Fend You Off” in a press release from Atom Splitter PR:
“Another color joins the tapestry with ‘Fend You Off. By now it might be apparent that we’re sharing new sides of ours. This is us at our core honest and vulnerable. We hope you like it. Stay Strange.”
Watch the visualizer for Zeal & Ardor’s new single off of their upcoming album below:
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