Zetra have been cofounding the listening public for quite a while now. Since Covid pandemic abated they seem to have been the support of choice for left-of-field metal acts, ably splitting the room between those that get them and those who don’t. Visually they have the air of a Gothic S&M party; adorned in corpse paint, leather, lace and fetish gear. They look like they have escaped from an early black metal cosplay convention.

Musically however, there are wonderfully refined and refrained synth pop. They scream early eighties dream-pop with a side order of shoegaze. This is their debut album and is finally an opportunity to revel in their wonderfully minimal style without having your head turned by their distinctly juxtapositional look.

There is a heaviness here, but it is deep down in the mix and very much detained in the foundations of their sound. The heaviness is used to create a solid underlay that they then build their slight and wavering pop upon. It is dark and atmospheric, full of moody melody and haunting harmonies. The sound swirls in waves of highly accessible ethereal refrains. It is fragile but also gloriously commercial. A superb celebration of minimalistic quirky pop.

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