Gaerea have never been easy to pin down, and Loss, their fifth full-length and debut for Century Media, is their most defiantly unclassifiable record yet. If Coma represented a step toward the light, Loss is the full leap into it.
There’s no easing in. “Luminary” arrives with the subtlety of a collapsing building — drums hammering like industrial machinery, guitars sweeping in great melodic arcs, and a vocal performance that immediately signals this is not the Gaerea of old. The chorus is the kind that lodges itself behind the eyes and refuses to leave. A false ending briefly teases reprieve before the track kicks back in with a heavier emotional weight, closing out on a burst of blast beats that earns its intensity entirely. As opening statements go, this is a commanding one.
“Submerged” then rolls in with a deceptively calm introduction before the blast beats rupture through, and the track becomes a torrent of controlled fury. The genius of the track lies in its shifting vocal architecture: clean melodies, gritty mid-register passages, and full-throttle aggression all occupy the same space. A mid-song piano and clean guitar section provides a moment of breath before the song builds back into a crescendo of genuine emotional weight. The underwater metaphor is more than aesthetic; the whole thing feels like drowning in slow motion.
If there’s a track on Loss that could convert the unconvinced, it’s “Hellbound”. Gaerea lean fully into their own interpretation of black metal here, shaping the genre’s harder edges into something far more inviting without losing a single gram of its bite. It is dynamic, emotionally loaded, and built for larger stages.
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“Uncontrolled” tears forward with a barely-contained urgency before the album’s emotional centrepiece, “Phoenix”, carries the weight of the record with an anthemic chorus that will certainly land well among the wider metal circle.
“Cyclone” opens with vocals that are melodic to the point of being, well, almost pop, before the brief electronic interlude of “LBRNTH” lingers with atmospheric synths and spectral voices. These hang in the air with the brooding undertow of “Nomad”, which still maintains a weight of darkness at its core.
Album closer “Stardust” begins with piano and clean, processed vocals that, on the surface, make certain comparisons unavoidable. However, to Gaerea’s credit, there is something that differentiates them as the gentle, intimate, and almost fragile opening lulls you into thinking the album might end softly. That is, until the tension builds and the track erupts into blast beats and crushing guitar work for one final, devastating reminder of what this band is capable of.
Loss is a bold, sometimes startling record that asks you to trust Gaerea’s instincts, and largely rewards you handsomely for doing so. The clean vocals will certainly divide opinions, but the emotional architecture of this album is so carefully constructed that dismissing it on those grounds alone would be a disservice.
This is the sound of a band methodically dismantling what post-black metal can be.
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Loss is out on March 20th via Century Media Records.
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