Gaerea is a band from Rome, Italy. It was founded in 2016
and their self-titled EP was released in 2016 via Everlasting Spew Records. The
EP lasts exactly 27 minutes and 27 seconds, and I can not help but wonder if
there is a sinister and omnious background behind the number that's been rounded
that way, maybe even more mysterious then the faces of the band members.
Although we can say that the hoods and masks in black metal have become a real trend,
almost replacing the traditional corpse paint, overused by the bands from Mgla
to The Stone, I can sincerely say that I am more attracted by the
visual concept of Gaerea than to the two aforementioned bands, in many more
ways. Mysterious symbols that cover their hidden faces create some sort of
esoteric and mystical aura. Nihilistic lyrics deal with contemporary and always
current issues and archetypes, directing themselves as a sort of dialogue
towards the listener. Not too misty and unspecific like lyrics of Mgla, not too
saturated and overburdened with archaisms like the ones of The Stone, but
direct, with perfect balance and measure. This fact alone makes the band
somehow more receptive. Cover art is beautiful, but it's surface is hiding a lot of beautiful, dark and abstract art motifs in the booklet with lyrics.
Mystical, incoming keyboards give birth to a spawn of dark, swirling
tremolos and heavy, massive and monolithic riffs, alternating with modern black
metal tendencies in chord formations and decompositions . Riffs are spontaneous
at their evolving . Galloping mid tempo rhythms spontaneously transform into fast
ones, introducing us to new passages
with ease. Motives seamlessly alternate, as well as rhythms, building a solid
and strong arrangement of material.
There are lots of interesting parts. ''Final Call'' begins with
a mixture of dark riff and chord decomposition that evokes the spirit of Mayhem's
''Freezing Moon'', unleashing the stormy waves of devastating, dark tide, that keeps
throwing our lifeless bodies around and slamming those against the rocks. In ''Void
of numbness'', we have rock-solid mid tempo riffs, crushing everything in front
of them as well, and occational DSBM lurches, leading to a beautiful atmospheric, fading
tremolos. ''Through Time'' is a song where obscure mid tempo riff is followed
by almost HC rhythm at one segment, but the most beautiful part of the EP for
me is the striking melody formed in the end of this song. Italians are obviously gifted for making those catchy, memorable melodies, and this one has reminded me of the one from Forgotten
Tomb's ''Alone'', just carving their way into the mind. There are also a lot of
spoken parts and recitations (like reciting of a prayer in Latin in ''Pray To Your
False God''), emerging from the dense darkness of this EP, slightly exceeding
to the constant piercing and whipping of maniacal, sharp and pretty harsh screams, that are one of the
main ace features of this release.
Great, simply refreshing black metal, and I can not wait for
their next release.
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