Following their recent trek with Meshuggah which included a mesmerising Jubilee performance in London’s Royal Albert Hall, ZEAL & ARDOR are pleased to confirm details of their headlining European tour this winter.
The extensive run kicks off with seven UK shows in early November and calls into 14 countries, wrapping up in Switzerland mid-December.
Tickets go on sale at 10am local time this Friday from all good box offices and via the band’s official website www.zealandardor.com.

Released in February 2022, ZEAL & ARDOR‘s self-titled, latest album hisses and seethes with condensed fury. Recorded by Marc Obrist and Manuel Gagneux at Hutch Sounds, ‘Zeal & Ardor’ was mixed & mastered by Will Putney at Graphic Nature Audio. All songs were written and performed (except drums) by the multi-lingual Gagneux. The 14-track album is available digitally, as a digipack CD, and as a black vinyl, a white vinyl (indie exclusive), or a deluxe, gatefold, double black vinyl.
Not familiar with Zeal & Ardor yet? Watch recent videos ‘Run‘ (director: Garrick J. Lauterbach), ‘Golden Liar‘ (director: Max Carlo Kohal), and ‘Death To The Holy‘ (director: Jen Ries). Learn more about Gagneux’s influences in this interview with Kerrang!.
Praise for ‘Zeal & Ardor’:
“Originality is a scant currency, and Manuel’s pockets are full. Devil Is Fine dreamt of a new world, Stranger Fruit started the journey, but Zeal & Ardor cast its anchor and bought a house there. We’re just lucky to be invited.” – Metal Hammer
“Zeal & Ardor hit harder than ever on brilliant third album….. its creators’ ability to wrest drama and invention from what could have been a quirky musical dead end remains in sharp focus.” – Kerrang!
“Somehow blending towering, reverb-drenched arpeggios, thundering metal riffs and traditional work songs, Gagneux is one of the most unique musicians working today.” – Guitar
“Some records touch your soul and some reach inside and change it forever. Zeal & Ardor is the latter. This is a bewitching combination of styles, forged in a heavy metal furnace. Trying to put this record in a descriptive box is as futile as training a cat to dance. What it is, is musical alchemy… It’s a master class in genre merging and the result is intoxicating and brutal in equal measure.” – Louder Than War
et another potent concoction of intelligent and unique ideas. [Their eponymous full-length] frankly highlights the band as some of the most prolific and exciting musicians on planet earth.” – Distorted Sound
“Manuel Gagneux is a man of many voices… he really comes into his own.” – Classic Rock
“An extraordinary, innovative piece of work that helps push the band towards being the most interesting act around…. watch out, they are going to be massive.” – Powerplay
“The real genius of Manuel Gagneux is the way he melds extremity with melody, and he does so stunningly… You need to hear this record. It may only be February, but this is sure to be one of the most interesting metal records of the year.” – Punktastic
Zeal & Ardor‘s widely praised second album, ‘Stranger Fruit’, was released by MVKA in 2018, following the global attention-getting, multi-million streamed debut, ‘Devil Is Fine’. Critically acclaimed across the industry, The Guardian newspaper described ‘Stranger Fruit’ as “extraordinary and brilliant” upon release.
Upset wrote it was “a compelling listen,” Metal Hammer applauded its “sheer musical brilliance,” with Rock Sound concluding, it was “one of the most uniquely daring and wholly affecting albums of 2018 so far,” plus further plaudits rolling in from Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Noisey, Alternative Press, and more.
By Christmas 2018, the UK’s largest free newspaper Metro declared ‘Stranger Fruit’ their #2 Album of the Year in a cross-genre list, declaring “in this jaw-dropping meld of black American folk music and black metal, the Swiss artist Manuel Gagneux has hit upon something genuinely original.
In March 2019, following a blistering set in London the previous December, the band went on to release the double live album ‘Live In London’.
Then, in October 2020, amidst a provocative and stimulating 18-month profound period of reflection – that led to the writing of the new, self-titled album – the band quietly shared the striking, standalone 6-track EP, ‘Wake Of A Nation’.
Their intense third album, crystallising everything the band are, was released 11th February, 2022.