GAEREA
Portugal’s black metal sect summon up a maelstrom
GIMME TV
Gaerea get the seal of approval
THERE’S SOMETHING JARRING about seeing a band as mysterious and arcane as Gaerea performing in a setting as workaday as a brightly lit studio, so it’s to the Portuguese quintet’s infinite credit that they manage to fill the space with their own majestic strangeness. Dedicating the performance of 2020’s excellent Limbo to those who supported them “throughout this bleak, horrifying year”, what the set might lack in surprise it makes up for with performative gusto and elegant savagery. Anyone unfamiliar with the band’s work gets a perfect primer with 11-minute opener To Ain, a bleak yet strangely exultant piece that combines thick, gristly crunches with scything treble and fork-tongued melodies.