Conversations with Brian Elza, guitarist for Chicago-based metal band Czar, start with music but tangent into a myriad of other topics.

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, Russian history, meats and barbequing said meats, Scottish drum and fife groups, kilts, existentialism, physics, the similarities between quiet nerdiness and obvious aggression.

The divergences reveal a well-rounded mind occupied with more than just metal, but they also mirror the music that Elza makes with bandmates Jason Novak (guitar, vocals, samples) and Dan Brill (drums). Czar creates layered, complex, nuanced and brutal music that speaks in dark ambiguities about the unflinching, ever-consuming world around us.

It’s metal for the thinking man. And it’s getting noticed.

Czar’s debut full length album, Vertical Mass Grave, released this month on Novak’s own label, Cracknation Records, has been lauded already by the Chicago Reader, Illinois Entertainer, Out Burn and Metalunderground.com. The work finds the trio tightening and creating a more sophisticated, sonically interesting sound than that found on their previous effort, an EP released in 2009 just months after the band formed. That EP captured a solid band, but one still finding itself. Not so with Vertical Mass Grave.

“The EP wasn’t rushed by any means, but there was a concerted effort to have something at our shows besides our live sets. Some of those songs were presented to me (by Novak and Brill) as a demo. The basic riffs were there, and I added riffs and melodies. The new album is definitely all three of us and has more of all of our influences in it,” notes Elza, who goes on to name check The Cure, Ministry, Helmet, Shiner, Hum, Failure, Baroness, Mastodon, Torche, Gojira, Meshuggah and more.

“And we’ve all become better players,” he said.

Elza’s modesty in regards to Czar’s talent is surprising considering the band members’ pedigrees. All three played with local industrial legends Acumen — an act spearheaded by Novak for years. Simply put, they know their way around stages, studios and riffs.

Czar’s past plays a part in its present success without question. The Acumen years provide a nice foundation, giving the band a tightness, familiarity and camaraderie that most bands would kill to possess. It also allowed them to bang out basic tracks for Vertical Mass Grave in a one-day-long marathon session at Great Western Record Recorders in Tolono, Ill. (with Hum guitarist Matt Talbott behind the controls). An astonishing feat.

The coming year sees Czar in planning mode, scheduling more shows and further promoting Vertical Mass Grave. Day jobs and family obligations have kept the band tethered to Chicago thus far, but a tour is in the works.

“We’re always out looking for more friends of Czar,” cracks Elza. That friend base will certainly increase at the Winter Czarbeque being held at Cobra Lounge on Friday, December 23.

Co-sponsored by local carnivore aficionados ManBQue and promoters Unholy Empire and benefitting the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the event promises to be overflowing with metal, meat and fine spirits. Czar and Of Wolves will perform, with DJ sets by Unholy Empire.

And as the ultimate tribute, ManBQue will unveil a special Czar hamburger for the night: a meat-lover’s dream slathered in “Doomsayer Sauce”, imperial stout braised mushrooms and onions and melted smoked Gouda, all housed in a crispy, buttered pretzel roll.

Wicked.