1. Can you give us an update on what is going on with the musical project these days?
JTS: We’re already working on our second album. It will be quite different because for the first one I made the instrumental track alone and at that point I didn’t even know who would be doing the vocals. I had the full instrumental track almost ready and then sent it to BÁL, and he loved it. I was thrilled to work with him, he is incredibly talented, like insanely so. For the second album it will probably be a lot more back and forth, bouncing ideas and working together from the ground up.
BÁL's answer: We just released our debut so we're spending most of our time being active on social media posting stuff and also answering interview questions like this, reading articles and reviews about Devouring Principle. In the meantime we've already started working on the next release. All in all, we didn't stop working on the project.
2. In September you had released your first full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
JTS: Well, I never really think of musical styles deeply until after the fact. Before I started writing the instrumentals all I knew was that it would be something black-metal-ish, but I wanted to have some dark ambient in there too. Silence and noise in parallel, flux, change, rebirth, and death, all to fit the album’s theme. It was less about fitting into a genre and more about creating a sound that could move between states, like a living process rather than a fixed style. So yeah, not sure I can give a more satisfying answer than that.
BÁL's answer: I think we both can say with JTS that we didn't really go for anything. The release just happened, we had no specific musical ideas. You must know, this guy is a genius. JTS mainly composes funeral doom with tons of cinematic landscapes and huge atmospheres. Some of his songs are highly meditative. From my side, I mainly do black metal stuff and it was not different here. The mixture of this appeared to be the 1st zythaex record.
3. Can you tell us a little bit more about the lyrical topics, subjects and concepts you covered with the new release?
JTS: The lyrics deal with impermanence and erasure, but through imagery that leans into the eldritch and the cosmic. It is not about literal creatures or mythology, but about the feeling of something vast, ancient, and unknowable that governs all change. I wanted it to feel like the universe itself was devouring everything it creates, including us. Those forces are metaphors for time, decay, and transformation. They move beneath everything, unseen but always present. The album is kind of a meditation on that process, the collapse of form, identity, and thought, and the strange beauty hidden inside that destruction.
BÁL's answer: let me just quote from the lyrics, I think it's enough:
"What is called life
Is the seed of its own undoing,
A fleeting hesitation
Before the return to stilness. "
If you feel that these words are resonating with you, check out zythaex's Bandcamp site, read all of it and draw your conclusions.
4. In one interview you also mentioned an interest in Buddhism and the existential writings of Heidegger and Satre, can you tell us a little bit more about these interests and do these topics also have an influence on the songwriting process?
JTS: Both Buddhism and existential philosophy deal with the same fundamental questions about being, impermanence, and meaning. What I find interesting is how they approach the idea of nothingness from different angles but often arrive at similar truths. Existentialism looks at the confrontation with meaninglessness as a human crisis, while Buddhism sees the dissolution of self and attachment as liberation. When writing, I think both perspectives come through. The despair of realizing that everything decays, and the peace that follows once you accept it. I wanted to explore the darker side of this thing, the fear and uncertainty that exist before acceptance, when you are still clinging to form as it slips away. The music is written from within that tension, between fear and acceptance, resistance and surrender.
BÁL's answer: -
5. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Zythaex'/
JTS: Man, I wish I had some cool and profound origin story for the name, but the truth is that my main motivation was just to find a word that begins with a z and ends with x, is relatively short, and doesn’t exist anywhere on the web. I spent ages googling random words I came up with that I thought sounded cool. When I finally thought of zythaex, googled it, and found zero search results, that was good enough for me. It just felt very right and I love the sound of it. David, a dear friend of mine, pointed out that zythaex would probably be the final artist in everyone's music player (z followed by y). That was a pretty sharp observation and one more good reason to stick with the name. I think we ended up with something unique there.
BÁL's answer: the name of our project was found by JTS so he's the one who should answer this question.
6. Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is present on the new album cover?
JTS: The artwork represents the same eldritch beings that appear in the lyrics, but they are metaphors rather than literal entities. They symbolize time, decay, and transformation. The forces that govern everything but remain beyond human understanding.The idea was to make something that feels ancient and alien, as if it exists outside of any clear context, just like the themes that run through the album.
BÁL's answer: the artwork was done by JTS so he's the one who should answer this question.
7. The band members live in Iceland and Hungary, what impact does the long distance have on the musical style that you play?
JTS: The distance probably shapes how we work, but in a positive way. It forces a certain kind of focus and independence. We worked on our ideas in isolation. I pretty much did my part first, then BÁL did his part, although I revisited the instrumental a lot after he sent me the vocals. After hearing them I just thought, some parts deserve more, more embellishments and accentuations to match what he was doing. We both develop our ideas separately, so by the time we share them, they already have a strong sense of identity. When those ideas come together, they form something layered and unexpected.
BÁL's answer: the thousands of kilometers don't have any impact on our musical style. In my opinion it's the other way around. The distance is a tiny particle that makes our music complete. The distance is 1 little thing that defines our sound. The distance is a stone brick if we think about zythaex as a castle.
8. Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you open to expanding the line up or do you prefer to work as a duo?
JTS: Considering how strong of a bond I feel right now with BÁL after working on this project together, the very idea of bringing someone else aboard sounds almost sacrilegious. I think that's very, very unlikely to happen.
BÁL's answer: I think if another person were to join us in our journey, Zythaex's sound would fall apart or would definitely transform into something amorphous.
9. The new album was self released, are you open to working with a label on future releases?
JTS: Yes, definitely.
BÁL's answer: I'd be delighted to work with a label, and I think our project deserves better care from a professional whose primary job is managing records.
10. On a worldwide level, how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
JTS: Overwhelmingly positive so far. I didn’t expect so much to be written about it this quickly. Rockbook called it “dark, meditative, and brutally honest,” Kronos Mortus described it as “a Hungarian–Icelandic meditation on time and silence,” and you guys gave it 8 out of 10 for its atmosphere and dissonance. On Bandcamp, listeners compared it to Akhlys, Nightbringer, Thantifaxath, and Blut Aus Nord, describing it as “a black hole’s event horizon” or “a maddening cacophony.” It’s been amazing to see people connect to it so deeply, often in completely different ways.
BÁL's answer: Based on the reviews, messages, and articles that I've read, we have only received positive feedback on this record.
11. What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that the singer is a part of?
BÁL's answer: Well, I'm part of at least a handful of musical projects. Most of them are active, and we're always working on something new. I'm slowly losing track of some of the things I had my hands in, but here's some news I'm sure of. The new thecheesegrinders record will be out soon (probably in a week or two). There will also be another Tree of Hell record coming out sometime later. We had a release with Avaot not so long ago that I'm pretty proud of. Check out "Beyond the Gates" if you want to hear some classy Norwegian black metal with ultimate production.
12. Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
JTS: It’s hard to predict exactly where we’ll go, but I think the second album will expand on the foundations of Devouring Principle while moving across some new sonic landscapes.
BÁL's answer: I wish I had an orb to tell you the future. What I'm sure of is that we'll release another one in a couple of months (perhaps even earlier).
13. What are some of the bands or musical styles the band members are currently listening to nowadays?
JTS: I’ve been listening to some random Japanese shoegaze and alternative rock a lot lately. Although progressive and psychedelic rock has probably been my most consistently listened to genre throughout the years, bands like Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, and King Crimson have always stayed with me. I’ve also been listening to Pantheïst quite a bit recently, as well as other funeral doom classics like Skepticism and Tyranny. I tend to move between styles depending on what I’m working on and depending on my mood and various other factors I'm probably not aware of. I've not yet discovered a musical genre that holds nothing of interest to me.
BÁL's answer: I mainly listen to late '90s and early 00's drum and bass mixes nowadays (LTJ Bukem, Roni Size, Ed Rush & Optical, Bad Company...) and also like to listen to the records of King Tubby, Wes Brooks, Blue Bells, 1 NY, and Toney Barrett.
14. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
JTS: Just a sincere thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to listen, write about, or reach out about Devouring Principle. Seeing how deeply people have connected with it has meant a lot.Thank you also to Occult Black Metal Zine for the thoughtful questions and support of underground music.
BÁL's answer: Thank you for the opportunity Occult Black Metal Zine and thank you to anyone who took their time reading this chit-chat.
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