Black metal is a genre that has an awful lot of stigma attached to it. Murder, arson, cults, more murder – it’s a pretty dark and dingy corner of the music world that seems perpetually incapable of detaching itself from those traits. Well, until you discover Gaerea, that is. The Portuguese unit have been redefining what it means to be a black metal band in the modern scene, adding brighter colours to their sonic palette than their peers, and it’s drawn those in the know closer to them like a corpse-painted moth to a flame. Their new nine-track offering ‘Loss’ sees them add some fancy new tricks into their repertoire, producing their most ambitious record yet.
The band are, and have always been, anonymous. Now that Sleep Token have become a global phenomenon there will be many newcomers to the project that call copycat or claim the band are jumping on the mask-wearing bandwagon, but Gaerea’s anonymity represents something very different. They aren’t worshipping a deity, they aren’t world-building or storytelling. They’re removing their identity from their music so they can explore their musical direction on a blank canvas, embracing whatever their palette decides to splash on it. On ‘Loss’, that creative freedom has painted an incredibly colourful picture.
The core DNA of Gaerea is still very much intact on this record, and it sounds just as impassioned and visceral as ever. Tracks like the blistering ‘Submerged’ and the relentless ‘Phoenix’ rocket forward with a fierce intensity, laced with a post metal serenity that makes everything sound that little bit more epic. There are some ominously dark numbers here too, most notably ’Uncontrolled’, and the dense smog seeping from its main motif. As mentioned earlier, though, this record has some curveballs that really set it apart from their previous records. The biggest, and perhaps most unexpected surprise on ‘Loss’, is the singing.
Some fans of the band will love the clean singing on this album and embrace it warmly. Others will completely stand against it. One thing is undeniable though; it fits, and it’s performed with such an impressive range and emotive intensity that suggests it’s a trick they’ve been sat on for a hot minute. Album opener ‘Luminary’ starts off as a wrecking ball of power, giving way to a huge chorus that gives the song a gigantic lift. ‘Cyclone’ is stunning and it wouldn’t sound anywhere near as moving if it wasn’t sung so beautifully, the softer moments allowing the sharper ones to cut even deeper.
A nine track album may seem short on the surface, but the runtime clocks in at around 46 minutes and none of it feels like filler. Every track is intentional, placed in the track listing purposefully, and the way the record closes out is magical. The expansive tones of ‘LBRNTH’ set the tone for ‘Nomad’, a track that feels incredibly cinematic. The chorus cries of “I am the nomad, carrying a weight that I’ll never show” are spine-tingling, the feral drum-work and intricate guitar lines surrounding it locked in a tug of war between melody and malevolence. The final track, ‘Stardust’, is the showstopper here. There’s delicate guitar licks, atmospheric electronics, guttural screams, devastating percussion and bags upon bags of emotion. It’s both a thematic and sonic bookend, a firm and well-rounded full stop to a breathtaking album.
This is an incredibly important record in Gaerea’s discography, sure, but it’s a little bit more than that. The experimentation, the risks, the ambition; it’s their most accessible album by a country mile, but it doesn’t feel like they’ve had to sacrifice any of their punch to achieve that. ‘Loss’ is an album that’s been influenced by black metal but not defined by it, and it sets the band an incredibly big challenge. How on Earth do they top this?
DAVE STEWART