GAEREA
JOE DALY
Limbo
SEASON OF MIST
Shadowy Portuguese cult open up a thrilling new black metal front
Gaerea’s new album is totally gripping
GAEREA EMERGED FROM Portugal in 2016, releasing an eponymous EP that year and following it up with their full-length debut, 2018’s Unsettling Whispers. A criminally underrated affair, that album became a crucible in which they forged a fiery amalgam of black and death metal, along with elements of hardcore and doom. Practically nothing is known (or offered by the band) of the musicians, who appear hooded in photos and who don’t even offer dramatic aliases for beleaguered music journos to reference in reviews. Nonetheless, while their enigmatic lack of identity and hyperbolic promotional bio approach heroic levels of self-parody, their music does not fuck around. And with the release of their latest album, Gaerea have established themselves as one of the newest visionaries in metal.