Zetar is the brainchild of Texan musician R.G and their first album Devouring Darkness sees T.P and David Lamas complete the lineup on vocals and drums respectively. The band waste no time in introducing themselves with demos or EPs and dive into the deep with an ambitious full length.
Like labelmates Journey Into Darkness, the band deliberately blur the line between genres with a compound of Celtic Frost inspired riffs and long arpeggiated sequences reminiscent of mid-period Bathory. This is all combined with nascent death/thrash rhythmic sensibilities and the ability to introduce some of the more atmospheric elements prevalent in modern black metal. Each song plays outside of those tropes as seen on “Portal Six-Three” with its fully realized Death metal tremolo riffs and growls and the Voivod derived chord progressions that appear halfway through “Landru” to carry it to a satisfying conclusion.
Devouring Darkness explores a lot of different ideas and like most opening works in a band’s discography, it explores a lot of different styles and sonorities at the cost of its identity but this is held down by a clear vision that follows the themes highlighted by the lyrics and provides a lot of unexpected variety without sacrificing cohesion. Where Zetar truly shine is in the use of established motifs that let the lead guitar shine with its simple yet tonally ambiguous melodies that resolve in unexpected ways. The band understand this and use these to create the choruses on “Return to Talos IV (The Cage)” and “Ardra (Great Deceiver)” that anchor the labyrinthine arrangements of these songs through sheer memorability.
All in all, Devouring Darkness diverges from the norm by not relying on its science fiction themes as an excuse to delve into faux-prog but offers a unique listening experience quite unlike anything us and in this world plagued by an innumerable amount of similar sounding bands, this is the greatest of achievement that can be bestowed upon any band.
