Zu are an avant-garde metal trio formed in Rome, Italy, who have been releasing music since 1999. Ferrum Sidereum is their third full-length release for House of Mythology Records and their 14th in total. The band’s current lineup consists of Luca T. Mai on baritone sax, keyboards, synthesiser, and organ, Paolo Mongardi on drums and acoustic and synthetic percussion and Massimo Pupillo on bass, 12-string guitar, synthesisers, and keyboards.

"Charagma" is a brutal slab of industrial metal to get things underway, and proof that synths and keyboards can be just as heavy as guitars, bass and drums, and when you add some saxophone into the mix, you have something fresh and interesting. The track is built around an almost Fear Factory-esque riff that is the bedrock of the song’s sound. "Golgotha" is up next, and this reminds me of Rage Against the Machine with added saxophone. The music is complex and brutally heavy, and that damn saxophone steals the show here. "Kether" is next, and this one has a bit of a Tool vibe to it. You can hear the influences on each track, but what has to be said is how much the band has their own unique style going on. The music is always really heavy, and miraculously, that saxophone is at the centre of it all. "A.I. Hive Mind" is another dissonant slab of heavy goodness that continues to surprise me with its odd sonic complexities. I think it is only pertinent to point out at this time that the drums and bass on this record are on another level, both sonically and in terms of the performances. It’s boundary-smashing stuff, and it’s gloriously good. "La Donna Vestita Di Sole" is a slower, epic-sounding beast that features some absolutely outstanding synth work before shifting into something even weirder around the 2-minute mark. There are so many layers to what’s going on here that it’s difficult to describe it, but what is definitely evident is that they have created a monolithically heavy beast of a record that sounds like nothing else, using a selection of instruments that are not generally associated with brutally heavy metal music. "Pleroma" takes things down a notch or two, it’s less metallic-sounding and built more around synthy weirdness and some pretty nice tribal drumming. "Fuoco Saturnio" picks up the tempo again with some sax-laden industrial metal stomp. "The Celestial Bull and the White Lady" has a slow, funky groove to it that builds and builds, getting heavier and heavier as the song progresses. On another level, it’s constantly changing and reinventing itself, different time signatures, different riffs and slow, fast, heavy and gentle all in one song. A real smorgasbord of musical styles. This is followed by "Hymn of the Pearl", another track with an epic sounding Tool style riff, that’s followed by "Perseidi", a short piece of weird atmospheric electronica that leads us into the album’s closer and title track, "Ferrum Sidereum", an 8 minute plus epic that draws influence from early Godflesh, but then rips the rug from under the listener by mixing things up again.

What a record, this is one of the most interesting albums I’ve heard in recent memory. It’s not every day that you hear an album this diverse and this interesting. Ferrum Sidereum has left me floored; it’s a stunning piece of work from a band I have never heard before, but who I will most certainly be hunting out more music from. Avant-garde, brutally heavy and that damned saxophone….just wow! Every instrument is impeccably played, and every song is a work of fine art. This will be sticking around in my playlist for a good while to come. Such a unique piece of work.