Zetra - From Without (2022)

Zetra, the metal-stylized dream pop project from London is back. In fact, they release new EPs quite regularly and after I posted about The Wanderer two years ago, they managed to release two EPs: From Within and From Without. And the latter is so good that I couldn't miss it.

Although the image of the band is clearly black metal-inspired (with the logo, the cover arts, the IG pictures all about the dark culture of metal music), their music is located on the more ethereal part of the music spectrum. The dispersed and very airy vocals are balanced with tangible, coarse rock/metal guitars and the results are brilliant. Especially in my favourite song on this short album, Call of the Void with its catchy (and extremely unnerving and gloomy) chorus. Those dream pop vibes are packed in a synth-soaked package that ties the project also to more post-punk scene, but, in reality, the project really draws the best from very different genres and this is what I like about it the most.

From Without costs 6 EUR (4.99 GBP).

Zetra - The Wanderer (2020)

Check: Call of the Void

Country: UK

Genre: darkwave dream pop

Label: Children of the Vortex

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Zetra - The Wanderer (2020)

Zatra is a post-punk/gazy duo from London who lately released some intriguing stuff. I liked their EP from 2020 but what really caught my attention was... an EP from 2020. Towards the end of the year, they released a themed EP called The Wanderer.

This album was, naturally, written in isolation during the lockdowns, however, its focus is not on this experience but on something quite different: the nature of Christian holidays and their beginnings "when native European gods and traditions were assimilated and appropriated into a festival now celebrated across the world". So we have something about Odin, something about Sol Invictus here and all this sort of jazz. Quite special for this kind of music (sounds like a metal theme to me) - a blend of delicate, pop-like melodic and dreamy at the same time vocals with shoegazy coldwave and noise rock in the backgrounds.

In Hanged God, we can hear fitting long and desolated passages of guitar sounds as well as wavy electronic devices and it's blends into the cold noise rock of the rest of the album. The balance in the form of the angelic vocals (especially in the ballad-like Before I Dissolve) is like light to the music's shadow and fits perfectly the visual side of the project.

The Wanderer costs 2 GBP.

Check: Hanged God

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy noise rock

Label: Death Waltz Recording Company

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