The intimate, deconsecrated splendour of the Scottish city’s 700-cap St Luke’s is a perfect space in which to celebrate many types of artist, but none more so than mysterious London duo Zetra. With the old church’s high windows lit a foreboding purple, and a packed-in congregation hiding from the biting cold well before this evening’s big-name headliner SKYND arrives, the corpse-painted pair emerge to a mixture of confusion and curiosity, but quickly take control.
Looks can be deceiving, you see. The headliners’ garishly made-up hardcore packed on the barrier are visibly braced for an onslaught of icy blasbeats and hellraising howls, but the soothing, sun-dappled shoegaze of opener Float knocks them for six. New single Sacrifice – released to coincide with Zetra’s signing legendary metal label Nuclear blast – darkens the atmosphere, beckoning rather than blasting into the abyss. Into My Flesh ups the atmosphere, sublimating its dark power while remaining on the sunny side of blackgaze, before Life Melts Away reveals their full heft and swagger in a wave after wave of eighties goth-metal and nods to fuzzed-up nineties alt.