When it dropped in 1996, Zoon received a very mixed reception. It landed at a weird time, when the goth / industrial rock alliance had been forged but was still a somewhat uneasy one.
On first hearing, I and many others were disappointed that what we were getting wasn’t more Fields Of The Nephilim, but what initially sounded like a softer, more introspective Ministry — and really, what’s the point of a softer, more introspective Ministry?
After the prog-lite of Rubicon (basically FOTN with a new singer), it felt very much like the g(l)ory days were very much over for lovers of folk-horror goth cowboy spaghetti western tomfoolery. Rob Zombie had yet to take cybermetal EC Comics horror mainstream, and Zoon remained something of a curio for many years. I thought it was pretty dull with moments of greatness that were too few and far between.
However, the years have been exceptionally kind — and there’s been a lot of years. Twenty-eight, in fact, which is three more years than I’d lived when Zoon came out. I’d return to it occasionally, drawn in by its stunning sleeve artwork and the hope that I’d just been missing something and would one day “get it”. At first I latched onto “Shine”, the most “traditionally” Neffs-sounding track with its twining guitar, but that was just a handhold, really, allowing me to climb further into its richly-textured world.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Zoon was ahead of its time. And the rise of atmospheric black metal has provided a more comfortable middle ground for those who like their riffs hard AND their acoustic landscapes deep, dark and complex. It’s probably no coincidence that in my head The Neffs (of whatever flavour) now feel like they have more in common with, say, Wolves In The Throne Room than any of their goth contemporaries.
While it’s definitely still its own beast, Zoon fits a lot more comfortably with the Fields Of The Nephilim catalogue than it seemed to at the time. Indeed, at least “Pazuzu”, “Shine”, “Penetration” and “Zoon III (Wake World)” have made it onto the setlist of the most recent incarnation of Fields Of The Nephilim, with original bassist Tony Pettitt back in the fold, and they’ve fitted in perfectly.Because for The Neffs (of whichever variety or spelling) it’s always been about the mood. I mean, if you put Dawnrazor next to Elizium, there’s a pretty substantial musical gap there too , it’s just that this one seemed bigger at the time, in part because there wasn’t a The Nephilim to bridge it, making it seem more of a leap. Its penultimate epic, the cycle of “Zoon, Pt 1&2 (Saturation)” and “Zoon, Pt 3 (Wake World)” continues the almost operatic structure seen on Elizium, and takes The Nefilim from one end to the other of Carl’s intricately-created world, from eerie soundscapes to spooky crooning to full-on chugging metal, before “Coma” plays us out with the nicely-apocalyptic kind of mood music they used to come on stage to.
So yeah, I was kind of excited about this package — a lovely remaster that really brings out a lot of the textures I’d missed the first time round, and the addition of remixes of “Xodus” and “Penetration” as well as the electronic instrumental “24th Moment” (originally the B-side to the “Penetration” single). Oh, and that beautiful artwork is still intact.On some level (that of a near-solo project by a cult rock band frontman) Zoon is still a curio, but with the benefit of hindsight it feels a lot more like a long-lost magickal artifact whose time may finally have come, for those with ears to hear. As Carl yells in the breakdown on Penetration — “LISTEEEEN!!!!!!!!!”
-Justin Farrington-
