ZU – Ferrum Sidereum (2026) Review: Although it’s hard to know whether Zu themselves will be happy to hear this image being invoked, there’s something slightly eerie about one of the first sounds on the opening track of their latest album sounding more than a little like the whirring of helicopter blades. Recalling a key image of the first major news story of the year feels like one of their strange but apt alchemical coincidences that great artists can sometimes conjure up. Italian trio Zu are true musical alchemists. Their singular jazz-punk/experimental rock sound takes base materials (saxophone, bass and drums) and turns them into something wondrously radiant; a heavy, meditative, groovy and spiritual fusion whose formula belongs to them alone. While the band have plied their singular trade to such an intense degree since their 1997 formation that it’s tough to specifically ascertain how many albums, EP’s, splits and collaborative releases they’ve actually put out, ‘Ferrum Sidereum’ is something like their 15th studio album. Released on Ulver’s label House of Mythology, it’s a monster 80-minute double album, overflowing with more ideas and moods than most bands fit into a whole career. This relates to another topical issue that Zu are more consciously invoking on ‘Ferrum Sidereum’; the much-discussed potential impact of AI on human creativity. Regardless of whether or not you think, like Zu themselves have said that “machines and AI do not have spirituality, they cannot create”, ‘Ferrum Sidereum’s 11 gripping tracks offer solid evidence that the creative process is a beautiful, metaphysical practice whose imaginative capacities are something that no machine will ever match. The range of cohesive ideas that Zu manage to bring together here are awe-inspiring. ‘Pleroma’ is a notable highlight. Opening as a bass-lead meditation, before bringing in celestial chimes, industrial electronics and, eventually, a rhythmically wild rock freakout, it’s a journey like little else you’ll experience this year. There’s also numerous moments of transcendent heaviness, such as ‘Golgotha’, which towers like the holy hill from which it takes its name. The band’s grooves here prove that, beyond all the heady, rhapsodic spirituality, they can also rock as hard as anyone, particularly on some pummeling syncopated stretches that feel almost like metalcore breakdowns. Then there’s ‘A.I. Hivemind’. A furious rebuttal to artificial intelligence’s bland cultural flattening, this bass weight-laden monster deserves to be played as a clarion call leading the battle to destroy the resource-guzzling, wealth-extracting AI data centres and their anti-human overlords. Releasing this so early in the year just feels right. It might even be the first new release that some people hear in 2026. If so, what a thrilling and implicitly optimistic experience it’ll provide. ‘Ferrum Sidereum’ is the sound of human brains (and souls) firing in a manner that no machine ever will. Creativity is a sacred act that can produce wonders such as this and the idea, as all too often proposed by our minority of unelected tech elites, that their plagiarism machines can conjure up such equal beauty deserves to be met with howls of laughter. Open your heart to ‘Ferrum Sidereum’ and experience what it means to be human. — clashmusic.com Track List: 01 - Charagma 02 - Golgotha 03 - Kether 04 - A.I. Hive Mind 05 - La Donna Vestita Di Sole 06 - Pleroma 07 - Fuoco Saturnio 08 - The Celestial Bull and the White Lady 09 - Hymn of the Pearl 10 - Perseidi 11 - Ferrum Sidereum Media Report: Genre: prog-rock, jazz Origin: Italy Format: FLAC Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec Bit rate mode: Variable Channel(s): 2 channels Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz Bit depth: 16 bits Compression mode: Lossless Writing library: libFLAC 1.3.0 (UTC 2013-05-26)