Manuel Gagneux has forged a career out of rattling ’s cage. In 2016, his project debuted, pushing the genre well beyond its conventions by fusing it with African-American blues music. The resulting mixture made Manuel a fast star, lauded for his ability to innovate while still writing catchy tracks.
But, unsurprisingly, many of extreme metal’s purists took offence, irritated by the perceived softening of their favourite underground sound. Before Zeal & Ardor , sat down with Manuel and broached the topic of musical elitism. The chat didn’t take long to go off the rails, as the names of everyone from to music critic Anthony Fantano got pulled into the conversation.
Read the discussion below, then scroll down to see the extended video version, exclusively available on ’s Youtube channel. “There’s a couple of them. The TRVE black metal people are hyper-fond of us and they have some choice words.
Ha ha! There are a couple impressions on 4chan which are also quite colourful. Anthony Fantano gave a four [out of 10].” “Yeah, that stung.
I don’t talk to him anymore since then. We never talked, but still. Ha ha ha!” Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! “Yeah, it’s just funny.
Basically, they’re protecting their teen dream. ‘We were the coolest, most extreme teenagers,’ they’re really protective of that idea. To flip that on its head makes them really irritated and makes me really happy.
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