Style: Avant-garde jazz, brutal prog, djent (Instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: John Zorn stuff, Tool
Country: Italy
Release date: 9 January 2025

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Toiling around the Italian avant-garde music scene since 1999, Zu have little to prove on their sixteenth studio album, Ferrum Sidereum, another platter of avant-jazz/brutal prog from the trio. For those unfamiliar with the band—as I was—John Zorn, king of the weirdos himself, proclaimed the band “a powerful and expressive music that totally blows away what most bands do these days.” Knowing Zorn, that could mean Ferrum Sidereum is brilliant or utter bollocks, completely up its own ass. 

The album is far closer to the latter: eighty bloated minutes of atmospheric avant-garde jazz-cum-baritone saxophone djent. On this record, Zu worked with a producer for the first time—Grammy-winning Marc Urselli. To his credit, the sound design is immaculate, but Zu desperately needed to hire an editor in addition to a producer—Ferrum Siderium reeks of lack of self-restraint. For every focused syncopated djent section where the group chugs away, there is an extended section of noodling that doesn’t progress the song, or an ambient break detracting from the flow. Of the ten tracks that run over six minutes, all of them could legitimately be cut in half and lose nothing of substance, much of their runtimes being either repetitions of the same riff or aimless asides. The trio—bass guitar, baritone saxophone, and drums, along with synths and organs for color—spend a good chunk of their time faffing about in wonky rhythms, and since none of the instruments are particularly suited for carrying melodies, the sound is quite one-dimensional. Many of the attempts Luca Mai makes at melody on the sax end poorly. In fact, the band got their name as shorthand for the word “kazoo.” This is obvious for the discerning listener because in several tracks, such as “A.I. Hive Mind,” Zu tries to abuse a baritone saxophone by making it sound like a kazoo—puerile buzzing abounds.¹

When not aimlessly wandering a sea of navel-gazing, music-theory-nerd’s-wet-dream rhythms, like the staccato heavy attack of “La Donna Vestita di Sole,” Zu deal in the crescendo business. This style works especially well in the second half of the album. For instance, “The Celestial Bull and the White Lady” repetitively builds a spiraling tower of strange rhythms before Tomas Järmyr’s drums knock it down in a blur of wicked fills. The highlight of the album, meanwhile, is the free jazz sax solo at the climax of “Pleroma.” And when Mai abandons the abysmal baritone saxophone djent sound or the frustrating kazoo buzzes, his tone is full of intrigue, redolent of Neptunian Maximalism. The buildups are, for the most part, successful if you can excuse that they’re extended to the point of bloat. Unfortunately, the closer “Ferrum Sidereum” ends with a horrifically bland climax devoid of melody, concluding the record on a sour note.

The standout performer is Järmyr, whose otherworldly drumming brings to mind the legendary Danny Carey—his playstyle envelops the listener from all directions in hypnotic, polyrhythmic repetitions. In a track like “Hymn of the Pearl,” Mai’s saxophone provides a tasteful background, but the drums remain the focus because Massimo Pupillo’s bass does relatively little. Järmyr’s style alternates between delicate china and booming tom hits, slowly increasing the intensity from small flurries of cymbals into ginormous drum solos.  

Tight performances and decent climaxes cannot fill eighty minutes of largely a-melodic space; such a veteran act should know better, as should a Grammy-winning producer. Avant-garde jazz needn’t be accessible, but I also expect a cohesion to the pieces, and Ferrum Siderium is fragmented into various buildups interspersed with brutal prog chugs. It’s frustrating that all the good moments are surrounded by minutes of bland filler, leaving most of the record narrativeless mush.

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Recommended tracks: A.I. Hive Mind, Pleroma, The Celestial Bull and the White Lady
You may also like: Titan to Tachyons, Ckraft, Chris Beernink, Neptunian Maximalism, Ruins
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: House of Mythology

Zu is:
– Luca T. Mai (baritone sax)
– Massimo Pupillo (bass guitar)
– Tomas Järmyr (drums)

1. This is not actually how Zu got their name. ↩︎