Gaerea: To the Waters of Ain!

Cathartic release and black metal have gone hand in hand since the formation of the genre. While it’s easy, particularly for those outside of black metal, to see the genre as a somewhat goofy style of extreme metal, there’s no denying that digging beyond the corpse paint and entry-level Satanism there is a wealth of artistic expression and exploration. Shrouded in mystery and using their melodic blackened aggression to express their misery at the world, Portugal’s GAEREA have come out the gate swinging with their sophomore record, and Season of Mist debut, Limbo.

“When we write our concepts and lyrics, we always do it as if we are watching a movie. Often the texts and the lyrics are describing something. With our last album, Unsettling Whispers, we were straying into a new vibe, a new concept. We were acting as voyeurs, describing a new fictional, yet very vivid, society that we were stuck in. The last track of that album, Catharsis, we describe the main character falling into a very deep place in his conscience.” The main man behind GAEREA describes. Like all members of the band, he remains anonymous, garbed in black and masked, the band’s alchemical-like sigil sprawled across the front of his shroud. But while he prefers to keep his identity undisclosed, he is remarkably open about the cathartic nature of Limbo and keen to dig further into the concepts of the record.

“We carried on from Catharsis, and wrote Limbo all about that. To Ain, the first track, is all about that, taking these emotions of a fallen creature and describing it,” he continues. “The whole of Limbo picks up from where Unsettling Whispers ended. While we were discovering this new society in the first album, in Limbo we put our characters right in there. We were describing the society in the third person on our first album, now we are part of this world. That may be why the album is so emotional and intense, because we are dealing with our own feelings, conceptually speaking.”

Concept albums are nothing new in black metal, but the story running through both Unsettling Whispers and Limbo is something very different. Far removed from Lovecraftian horror, tales of the ancient world or deep dives into fantasy, here, GAEREA are taking a far more Orwelian route, as the guitarist and lead song writer explains.
“We took the concept of what’s perfect and what’s beautiful inside today’s society, and we created this fictional society based on that – no racism, none of the things that we consider to be wrong in today’s society. But still, we described a world that, in some way, was very sad because we created a world where feelings didn’t even exist. It was a reality where people walk towards nowhere, and we discovered – conceptually speaking – that the people in this world were trying to end their life. Unsettling Whispers is all about that vision of a society that can no longer express themselves.”

And how does Limbo continue this concept and story? “In Limbo, we are a part of this new world,” the masked figure explains. “We learn to watch and live inside this community. At the end of the album – without revealing too much – we found a way to liberate these people from their internal suffering. We started this concept back in 2018 with Unsettling Whispers, and we are still discovering it, still writing about it. Limbo is very much a sequel or a continuation of how we left off the first album.”

This naturally begs the question of where GAEREA will be taking this concept in the future – if there is even room for the story to continue. “I don’t even know if there will be another album. At the present time, I think we are pretty much done with this vision – but I also felt that way when we finished Unsettling Whispers, I was pretty sure that if we ever did another album it wouldn’t be about the concepts we explored on that record. And here we are now, with a full continuation!”

A promising thought. The Orwelian nature of GAEREA’s first two records certainly offer a unique concept in black metal as a genre, and to have a unified concept running through multiple offerings in their discography – that maintain such a high quality – is no small feat. But, of course, it isn’t just the thematics of GAEREA that make them an interesting outfit. Complete anonymity is impossible in this day age, but the band have, thus far, been pretty successful in keeping their identities hidden. But why? Is this just another gimmick, or does it link into the overall thematics and aesthetics of the band?

“We are just as anonymous as everyone in the audience,” the anonymous guitarist begins. “No one cares for the true self anymore, and we all wear social masks; at work, when trying to please our peers, when we’re stuck in traffic, even while we are talking right now, we are always creating ideas of ourselves to present to the world. The masks and the anonymity of this project are about this, no one is truly transparent in our daily lives.”

Limbo is a unique journey into the human psyche. Far removed from both the escapism and real world evils that are commonplace in heavy music lyrics, the Orwelian theme is no less unsettling – but the cathartic nature of GAEREA’s music lends itself to this concept wonderfully. Perhaps not the soundtrack for your summer barbeques or beer garden sessions, though it is a perfect album for a period of horrifying isolation.

Limbo is set for release on out now via Season of Mist.

For more information on GAEREA like their official page on Facebook.