What if a black metal band swapped blastbeats and screaming for synthesisers
and crooning, then rehearsed on the set of a 70s Doctor Who episode? It’s a question no one has ever asked. Nonetheless, Zetra are beaming the answer into people’s brains, with their costumed, cosmic nonsense making them rising stars.
Since the pandemic, this synth rock pair have supported everyone from Godflesh to Ville Valo. They’ve graced countless festivals and inked a deal with Nuclear Blast – all this before they’ve even put out their debut album. That’s how much punters love their synthpop/ shoegaze/hard rock tracks, or are bewildered by their gigs with old TV screens and more chains than Hellraiser.
Unsurprisingly, Zetra keeps flowing oxygen to the duo’s winning formula. Their marketing statements are more in-character sci-fi gobbledygook, while their new songs are as ethereal and melodic as usual. The band’s sonic ingredients mix best on standouts such as Gaia, where their music grows just as batshit as their presentation. On top of barrelling rock’n’roll chords, the synths are loud enough to be quasi-symphonic. The vocals prove similarly bombastic when they cry, ‘Gaia’s on fire!’ Unto Others collab Moonfall guns for similar pomp, its industrial touches squealing like pinch harmonics, starting a six-minute odyssey with a boot out the door.
Other songs, like opener Suffer Eternally, feel held back from the maximalist majesty. The breathy, high-pitched vocals are overwhelmed during the chorus’s blasts of digital percussion. It weakens what, on paper, is an earworm hook. With guest singer Serena Cherry from Svalbard sounding disappointingly distant during Starfall and the guitars rarely shining through on Shatter The Mountain, it’s clear that every texture still needs time to find its place. When Zetra fully commit to sounding as outlandish as they look, maybe that’s when their masterpiece will be released.
Zetra is released this Friday, September 13
