Legendary Italian trio Zu have been around long enough to earn their loyal following. I remember supporting them with an old band (Alright the Captain) when they played Nottingham many many years ago and after witnessing them live, it was an instant love affair. We rarely agreed on bands within our own band dynamics, but Zu were always a firm favourite in the tour van, so I was genuinely excited to see this new record land in my inbox.
On Ferrum Sidereum, their sprawling new album for House of Mythology, the band are on top form after spending a year refining this sprawling 80-minute epic through relentless rehearsals and live studio recordings in Bologna, on the new material they lean into scale, force, and a kind of restless reinvention that remains antagonistic to genre itself. It’s wild, intense, and if you’re inclined towards this kind of thing deeply joyous. There’s little point singling out individual tracks too much here, this is a record you strap in for and experience as a whole.
The album pulls from metal,prog, punk, jazz, and even the occasional burst of tribal drumming, but it never plays like a checklist. Instead, it moves in sudden, violent turns, driven by Luca T. Mai’s baritone sax, Massimo Pupillo’s immense bass presence, and Paolo Mongardi’s precise yet constantly shifting drumming. Opener “Charagma” begins with relative restraint before detonating into churning low-end and feral brass, setting the tone for an album built on tension and release. It’s fierce, and it will definitely have you pulling some good stink faces. “Kether” lumbers and twists through seven minutes of heaviness and melody, its approach recalling Tool in places which is no bad thing. Elsewhere, “A.I. Hive Mind” ricochets between jagged rhythms and free-form chaos, packing multiple ideas into one breathless surge.
Produced by Marc Urselli, Ferrum Sidereum sounds huge without feeling bloated. Every section hits hard, but there’s a new sharpness to how the band lock together, particularly on the record’s long-form pieces. Tracks like “Fuoco Saturnio” and “Golgotha” build patiently towards overwhelming peaks, only to follow them with further punishment. The closer, “Ferrum Sidereum”, ties everything together, nodding to Zu’s earlier math-heavy instincts while doubling down on their current weight.
Ferrum Sidereum isn’t subtle, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s a demanding, physical record from a band that still treats experimentation as something to wrestle with, not admire from a distance. I could gush about it all day, but I won’t. Go listen and decide for yourself.