Closing out this concert year for me is Zeal and Ardor, a great young band that has been very hyped up in the past couple of years, for good reason. They play a very original blend of black metal and blues/gospel music that is at once heavy and groovy, doomy and catchy.
The presentation is very cult-like, which should please fans of occult and pagan metal, however there is none of the ridiculous demonic poses that plague the genre, just a bunch of young musicians committed to their performance.
The riffs may be sound sick and evil but they never forget to write actual songs, with killer sing-along chant-like choruses. Properly marketed, those songs could be genuine hits on the radio. The tell-tale sign is the staggering amount of young girls dancing in the audience, which you typically don't see at metal shows.
These guys already have a big following and it wouldn't take much to propel them into superstar category, way beyond the realm of underground metal. Hopefully this is what happens next. The potential is enormous and I can't wait to see what kind of monster this grows into.
