Zeal & Ardor is a Swiss avant-garde metal band started and led by Manuel Gagneux, a Swiss-American musician who had previously created a chamber pop project called Birdmask. Formed in 2013, the band mixes sounds of African-American spirituals with black metal. Initially a solo project, the band signed with MVKA Records in 2016 and expanded to a full lineup, with Gagneux on vocals and guitar, backing vocalists Denis Wagner and Marc Obrist, guitarist Tiziano Volante, bassist Mia Rafaela Dieu, drummer Marco Von Allmen. Zeal & Ardor have released the albums Devil Is Fine (2016), Stranger Fruit (2018), Zeal & Ardor (2022), as well as a demo album Zeal and Ardor (2014). In 2020, they released their first EP, Wake of a Nation. Their fourth album Greif will be released in August 2024.