This is the fifth album from Portuguese metal/post-black metal band Gaerea.
It’s been very interesting to watch Gaerea develop over the years, peaking their black metal assault on 2022’s Mirage, before adding in a few different textures and influences on 2024’s very well-received Coma. The latter was the band’s biggest stylistic shift until that point. Loss delivers an even larger progression in sound.
The 46 minutes of material on Loss finds Gaerea completing their transition to a hybrid post-black metal entity, but of an unusual kind. In essence, the band have taken their blackened roots, continued to augment them with the melodic elements from their previous record, but have now also adopted further component parts from metalcore and melodic death metal. The end result is an atypical mix of Gaerea, bits of things from bands like Viscera, In Flames, and Orbit Culture, and a touch of acts like Deafheaven and Sleep Token. Loss, therefore, is Gaerea’s most accessible and conventional album. Significantly so; less ferocious extremity, more thick metallic guitars, clean singing, and big choruses.
It’s simultaneously an album quite different from the band’s past, while also following on naturally in hindsight. You can draw the dots from Coma to Loss, although it is only one path the band could have taken. It’s likely a great number of older fans won’t join Gaerea on their new journey, but for those that do, Loss reveals itself to have many hooks and endearing features.
It’s not a completely different band; Loss contains ingredients like blast beats and dark aggression that will be familiar flavours from the past, especially those of the last album. Whole sections flow like you’d just have expected from Gaerea. These have been broadened, and layered with the largest change, which comes from the vocals. These are now far more metalcore in style and delivery, from harsh roars to semi-clean emotive sections, to soaring or intimate clean singing. The vocalist lets fly his full range on Loss, ably showing what he’s capable of.
The songs are well-crafted and professionally wrought. Designed to be anthemic and atmospheric at the same time, Gaerea have pushed themselves to develop more fully the aspects that began on Coma, embracing their stadium-friendly side. All of this, while still underpinning a decent chunk of the songs with post-blackened foundations, spliced with metalcore heaviness.
This is likely to be quite a divisive album for Gaerea fans. More precisely, the vocals are likely to be the main divisive factor. Musically, the distance from Coma to Loss is less than it is vocally. Your tolerance or enjoyment is probably dictated by your tolerance or enjoyment for metalcore/melodic death metal vocals. It’s a good album, albeit a different one to what many people may have hoped. Regardless, for those that can easily reconcile the past and the present, Loss has a lot to offer, with many highlights.
Wonderbox Metal 