Being known for a dark, depressive and controversial background, black metal has been at the forefront of the more underground metal scene since the 1990’s. With its atmospheric elements mixed with the unintelligible guitars and ring wraith vocals, it’s a genre like marmite. You either love it, or you hate the harsh production and heavy hitting feelings it conveys. 2016 saw the birth of one Gaerea, as well as their first EP. Although they would lay low during this time, they gained their following slowly but surely. Then in 2022 they dropped Mirage. The album that saw Gaerea rise to the top of the newer black metal scene and catapulted onto the radar of metal. Now we have the newest output from the band, Coma.
If you’re familiar with Gaerea you know what Coma will be. If it’s your first time joining the vortex, then you’re in for some despair, but not as you know it. While the band have rose to the top of the pack so to speak, it’s not through the genre’s typical themes of anti-Christianity or Satanism. Gaerea have chosen to use a more universal feeling. Suffering. And through Coma you’re introduced to their way of depicting and dealing with it.
Album opener ‘The Poets Ballet’ isn’t what you’re expected to be greeted to as your introduction to a black metal album. The soothing guitar is soft and almost dreamlike. Then we have the clean vocals which complement the stringed dreamscape. Then you’re stabbed in the back by the shrieking guitars and wailing vocals. All of a sudden that dream has turned hellish and you have no escape for the next 50 minutes. Is it ‘true black metal’? Absolutely not, that’s not what Gaerea are, they are their own identity and sound.
There are two things from here on out that set Gaerea apart from the pack. The density of the album and the momentum. The layers on Coma are incredible. You can listen through it many times and keep discovering small things in the backgrounds of songs that you didn’t pick up on before. The orchestral snippets and guitar melodies are outstandingly mixed together.
The album itself doesn’t let down once it gets going. While ‘World Ablaze’ starts out slower much like ‘A Poets Ballet’, it builds to something beautiful as the roaring vocals and instrumentals never overpower one another instead balancing each other perfectly. Then we have ‘Wilted Flower’. Again, a slower start, it is the album’s black metal ballad, but it builds to something and doesn’t fall or even trip under its own feet. The added clean vocals through the album are a beautiful addition, but on ‘Wilted Flower’ they’re quite jarring and unsettling, adding a mystique to the already masked band.
Coma is an unrelenting, disturbingly beautiful piece of black metal and Gaerea themselves always seem to upgrade their abilities on each album. Whether you’re an established fan or a new soul to the blend, Coma is a perfect point for the band to please everyone.