Gaerea: World Ablaze
Whether you were lucky enough to stumble across their blinding set at Fortress Festival, checked them out on their last UK support slot with WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM or recommended teasers from their upcoming album Coma, the name GAEREA is finally creating mysterious murmurs in the scene and for good reason. Since their last album Mirage was released at the tail end of lockdown, the masked black metal collective has captured fans with their atmospheric anonymity, blistering live shows and modern take on black metal that hits you in both harrowing and hopeful parts.
Every band will claim that they don’t want a new album to be the same as the last but after talking to the unnamed vocalist and listening to their upcoming full-length Coma, which is released in October, it’s a statement that is genuine in both the growth of the band and sound. “We know that we don’t want to fit in a certain box anymore,” he explains. “There were moments where we wanted really to be a black metal band. But now we are very confident in saying that we’re not a black metal band, even though it’s sort of a black metal album.”
This may be a confusing statement but if you’ve heard sneak peek singles such as World Ablaze or Hope Shatters, you’ll see what he means. Whilst the base of GAEREA is still enshrouded in black metal, there are influences from death, post-metal and atmospheric sub-genres that formulate into something reflective, harrowing and beautiful collectively.
All of GAEREA’s albums offer a strong, emotive subject and though some of these are resurrected in Coma, it’s from a different perspective, helped out by some changes in line up and of course, the world around them with the frontman referencing back to their debut full-length, Unsettling Whispers, where the vortex society concept began and has continued throughout their releases. New members bring not only new musical influences but also “new baggage and emotions”, and there’s an aggressive beauty to Coma that perhaps has not been felt before.
“Everything we released before is reimagined in a way in this album, we had songs about a group of people or fantasising about something we saw on the street. For example, in Mirage, we had songs about a person we saw dancing in Prague, and we were just like inspired by that moment. It was so weird and so truthful. I think this album is more of an experiment with my own thoughts, personally,” he explains. “It’s about a person, in the state of coma. All these songs are ramblings that could be memories, could be fantasies, could be all these things that kind of could go on inside a person’s mind if it’s in a coma, which is something a bit paradoxical because we don’t really know what goes on inside.”
As the conversation continues, “human emotion” is brought up throughout and though in current times, masks in the metal scene are thought of as a bit of a gimmick, GAEREA are not afraid to mingle with fans after a show. “We write about human emotions. We are very inspired by humans it’s our main source of inspiration. That’s why we tour so much. That’s why we try to be around our fans so much. We don’t hide in the backstage even though we use masks on stage. We keep it separated in that sense, whatever happens on stage is a form of art and expression for us, but we can’t be inspired by our fans or people in the street if we keep hiding in the tour bus, I don’t believe in that. If I’m touring, I like to go to a city to have breakfast somewhere and analyse their world. I mean it’s something so inspiring for me and the rest of the band.”
In amongst the conversation about the best places for breakfast in the UK and shattered dreams becoming a reality, the topic takes a sharp turn to, of all places, Scarborough. Yes, that quaint, little seaside town in the north of England, which has recently hosted newly acclaimed extreme metal festival, Fortress Festival. Despite the band hailing from the beautiful coasts of Portugal, the unnamed frontman refers to the weekend this summer as a “utopian dream”. For those in attendance, GAEREA’s set was one that left you speechless and despite being faceless, the raw emotion felt from the band is contagious.
“We have always been a band with zero egos. I mean look at the way we present ourselves live, nobody fucking knows who we are, we don’t care for that,” he shares, after admitting how many times people ask about the mask. “I think that’s why our performances are as impactful they are, because it’s that moment that really matters, nothing else. Sometimes when it’s a very good show and we feel the energy and the intensity from the crowd, we have moments where we ask people to settle for a bit so we can just look at all our surroundings and see all these people and the way they are perceiving our songs. We want to remember it for the rest of our lives. This is what really matters. It’s memories. It’s these things that you will never want to forget.”
With the album release on the horizon, several festival shows booked next year and their first “kind of” European headline tour to come, the consistent drive of GAEREA – who wrote, recorded and released this record in the space of twelve months – is sure to see their trajectory continue. As was the topic for the rest of the discussion, it only felt right to ask the songwriter which human emotion he expected or hoped for listeners to feel when finally getting to experience the record.
“I think it’s the first album we’ve written where there’s this like weird sense of hope to it. Okay, there’s songs that are very sad but I think for the first time I see hope in some songs even if it’s in a paradoxical way. It’s been interesting to explore for me at least, because we never had that before. Everything’s supposed to be grim, sad and dark. And yes, it’s still grim, sad and dark, but what if you realise there’s something else to it or a light at the end of the tunnel?”
Coma is out now via Season Of Mist. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS114 here:
For more information on GAEREA like their official page on Facebook.