Gaerea – Coma Review

By Thus Spoke

Gaerea is a case in point for why you ought never to dismiss a subgenre of metal.1 People rage—in varying degrees of jest—against what gets dubbed “atmo-butt black metal,” as though all black metal that incorporates atmosphere into a non-raw melodic template is for overeager, moist-eyed poseurs. While I happen to disagree with the sentiment in general, Gaerea is certainly in the upper echelons of this maligned group. The way that they have continued to develop their sound has taken them outside the confines of what can straightforwardly be called “atmospheric black,” but one thing has remained consistent: their emphasis on emotional expression. With Unsettling Whispers and Limbo representing anguished, hopeless groping in the existential darkness, 2022’s Mirage—my album of that year—saw that pain sharpened as it was channeled through a series of individual human struggles. Now Coma sees Gaerea again use separate stories of sorrow to evolve a little more, presenting a new and more vulnerable side to their distinctive intensity.

As a conduit for ardent emotionality, Coma is just as (melo)dramatic and steeped in affect as anything Gaerea has created, but it is not the same. Expanding their range, their music is now (more) hopeful, uplifting, and poignant. The jangling, sinister tremolo refrains, the swoops and surges of blastbeats, the roaring, they’re all still there, but they’re no longer simply parts of an exercise in catharsis. There is now a great deal more balance to compositions, as Gaerea leans the furthest yet into the introspection that’s haunted their atmospheric tendencies since their inception, reaching a gentleness that brilliantly complements the contrasting heaviness. If there’s one thing I was never expecting to hear on a Gaerea record, it was cleans. But on Coma, cleans are not only used relatively extensively—and they’re lovely—they are the first vocals to appear, warm and chiming above the resonant chords that open “The Poet’s Ballet.” Soft, harmonizing melodies that belie the blackness surrounding them. I said that Mirage felt like “the culmination of everything Gaerea has been so far,” and with Coma, Gaerea has redoubled their uniqueness, progressing in a natural, but unexpected, direction.

It’s Gaerea’s growth, which broadens and deepens the feelings the music evokes, that makes Coma so effective. It’s not only the outright force of the pathos in the blackened rushes of both despair (“The Poet’s Ballet,” “Wilted Flower,” “Kingdom of Thorns”) and triumph (“World Ablaze,” “Coma,” “Reborn”). It’s also the fact that I could have swapped those track examples and the point would still stand because each song is a standalone journey. I am reminded of Kardashev’s Liminal Rite in the way that Gaerea conjures dark storms of battering percussion and heart-rending screams, only for the clouds to part for an impossibly delicate—in comparison—passage of thrillingly reverberant notes (“Coma,” “Unknown”), singing (“Suspended”), or whispers (“Wilted Flower”) that lead that torn-up heart to stop. This is the kind of melodrama that rubs off on you. But it isn’t just a pure emotional ride; because Gaerea writes compelling songs. Coma is loaded with rhythms that create space and anticipation (“Coma,” “Wilted Flower”), irresistibly developing crescendos (“The Poet’s Ballet,” “Kingdom of Thorns”), and immensely satisfying, infectious grooves (“World Ablaze,” “Wilted Flower”). Refrains bleed melancholia in quivering notes whose rises and falls accentuate each song’s drive. Like water rushing into a waterfall, the drive of the music pulls you on relentlessly.

Despite Coma’s compositional brilliance, Gaerea has not addressed the main thing that held Mirage back: production. With a compositional palette that reaches further again into the atmospheric, and a musical raison d’être dependent on immersion, the compressed master hamstrings the music’s effectiveness. Coma still is immersive, and powerful, but it is beyond frustrating that the band chose to produce it as they did because it causes one to pine for what could have been. Beautiful passages of fragility (as in “The Poet’s Ballet,” and “Wilted Flower”), and layered climaxes (“Coma,” “Unknown”) would be jaw-dropping with more space to breathe—and the dynamic power of volume differences between the album’s peaks and valleys. As it is, they are simply very good.

Nothing stops me from loving Coma, though. Gaerea’s writers are perfecting their craft, writing songs that cannot fail to send you deep into your feelings, and which pack a serious punch besides. Coma finds Gaerea at the top of its game, delivering a black metal utterly unique and compelling. Naysayers be damned.

Rating: Great2
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

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