Ever since they set the world ablaze, Gaerea have raised the anticipation for their fourth album to an almost unbearable degree. From now on, the Portuguese masked sensations are no longer strictly a black metal band. Instead, they are emerging from the underground and clawing to the top of extreme metal.
Now, Coma has finally surfaced. Gaerea's new album is out today, October 25, 2024 on Season of Mist. Hear all ten beautiful and bloodied songs by listening to the full album playlist on Season of Mist's YouTube channel, which features several all-new visualizers.
Listen to Coma
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As is often the case with black metal, Gaerea arrived shrouded in mystery. But while their identities remained hidden, the band emerged from pandemic limbo with a vision that was guided not by myths or pagan beliefs but a purging of raw emotion. Fear and loathing still pulse through their icy veins. However, with Coma, Gaerea have altered their stylistic makeup.
"In the depths of my mind / Where the dusk resides", their new album beings with a heavy and heartfelt sigh. Coma is the first entry in Gaerea's mantle-worthy discography to feature clean singing, though "The Poet's Ballet" is neither angel nor demon. Instead, the way the tremolo picking twists away from the light into wailing dissonance sounds like a soul trapped in purgatory.
While produced by Gaerea's trusted confidant Miguel Tereso, Coma expands their signature sound in seemingly opposing directions. "World Ablaze" funnels their blackened vortex into a clearer song structure that's centered around an undeniable chorus. Even their most unsettling whispers were haunted by slivers of melody, but the new album digs its claws deeper into softly chiming post-rock. With its somber opening chords, "Suspended" unfolds like a wilted flower. That is, until the riffs come roaring into the fray behind an elevated gothic choir, bringing the band's level of despair to crushing new heights.
Coma is carefully constructed, but the moments of intense beauty only raise Gaerea's devestating blows. Like a swaying chandelier, the bridge on "Hope Shatters" hangs perilously in the air before it's smashed to pieces by a hammering bass groove. "Welcome to the urban abyss", their vocalist screams in bloody anguish, as if chained to the gates of hell. "Where dreams turn to rust".
The maze-like existence that Gaerea speak of on Coma is obscured by a depressive haze that feels like it will never end. Often, the lyrics go off in search of a greater sense of self, only to reach another dead end. "In the depths of bleakness / A glimmer of dawn" their vocalist cries out beneath the title track's unrelenting drum fills.
But Coma finds Gaerea asserting their new identity with even greater confidence. "Unknown" now stands as the band's most viciously catchy song. The hooks slither and shake to a minor key before worming into your ear canals with sharp melancholic pangs. Once the blast beats suck you into their vortex, the band’s sheer artistic force is blinding, like looking into the eyes of god. “This is who I am, sublime”.
As grand finale "Kingdom of Thorns" reveals in all its devastating glory, the crown of excellence is a heavy one for any extreme metal band to come and bear. "Lone in the spotlight", their vocalist cries out above the album's mountain of a climax. But with Coma, Gaerea are boldly laying claiming to the throne.
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