Zu – Ferrum Sidereum

Since 1999, the Italian band Zu released so many different records making them an incredibly multifaceted, kaleidoscopic and undefinable mixture of post-metal/prog/free jazz/math-rock/whatever rather unicum in Italy, and a hugely acclaimed band worldwide.

More than 25 years passed since their first iconic album Bromio (re-released and remastered in 2024 by the label Subsound Records) was released and, throughout their career, with each release, they’ve experimented in many directions and they’ve become the band we listen to today, alternating works more focused on ambient, free jazz and experimental music such as Jhator and Terminalia Amazonia with those more focused on post-metal/sludge/prog/math-rock such as those released with Ipecac Recordings and their last one, Ferrum Sidereum, subject of this review, released on 2xLP on 9th January by House Of Mythology, which label released some of their latest works.

As described in the Bandcamp release notes, the album title, in Latin, means “iron of (or from) the stars, referring to the meteoric ore, having had a deep spiritual significance in ancient times and contained in artifacts such as the Egyptian ritual objects with Tutankhamun’s meteoric iron dagger, as the Tibetan ‘Phurpa’ blades, and as the celestial sword of Archangel St Michael”. We can find that same primordial strenght and power along their whole new release, with its compresence of powerful and mathematically perfect drumming (Meshuggah fans will like this), intricate prog structures, melodic arpeggios and that mindblowing frenzy baritone sax, being a fundamental trademark of Zu music.

In this release, listeners will find some of their longest songs in terms of length to date. Besides Perseidi, their length goes from 6 to almost 10 minutes each, and the whole release has a mastodontic 80 minutes length. Each song has its unique soul although of course being connected to each other, and can’t be easily described in terms of music styles. Each song takes its time to slowly develop following a progression often reaching its climax at its ending part.

The bass guitar of Massimo Pupillo, the drums of Tomas Järmyr and the baritone sax of Luca T. Mai often communicate together, giving to the listener the feeling of a slowly built sonic maelstrom. Picking up some songs won’t give enough justice to the others, so simply play this record, both if you are a long-time fan or if it’s your first Zu record, and enjoy this cathartic/enlightening/all-ecompassing/brainstorming/whatever-you-want-to-define-it experience.

Label: House Of Mythology

Rating: 9