Photo by Flávio Almeida / Words by Jon Garcia

There’s a paradoxical phenomenon in the metal scene where fans constantly seek unique sounds and original bands, but are slaves to an imagined set of boundaries. The genre champions individualism, rejecting authority, and bucking trends. But yet – in order to be the most metal – there are rigid sets of rules by which to conform.

To stray from those constraints is to be labeled “other” by hordes of Internet forums ready to rally in dismay that their newest favorite band has “gone soft,” “sold out,” or – the worst of the worst – aren’t even “metal” any more. How dare they not sound like the same bands from 30 years ago.

In reality, the best bands follow their own road and grow weary of releasing the same sounding material over and over again. 

 

Across three studio albums, Portugal’s Gaerea have clawed out a space in extreme metal’s canon. From the frenetic black metal beginnings of Unsettling Whispers to the explosive musical imagery of 2022’s breakout Mirage, Gaerea has made monumental strides with every release; and they are about to put it all to shame with their new album Coma.

 “This is us letting go of labels,” Gaerea’s anonymous frontman says. “I mean, if we're not black metal anymore by the end of the day, I don't fucking care. We’re proud of where we are. Let's fucking face it, we never were a ‘kvlt’ band.”

Let’s be clear: Gaerea hasn't gone soft. They’re not completely reinventing their sound and they certainly aren’t courting mainstream radio play by jamming synthetic, bubblegum choruses into their songs.

But what they’ve managed to do on Coma is evolve beyond specific categorization. Coma ratchets up the atmosphere, employs clean singing and chanting for the first time, and envelopes listeners’ minds in a dreamy and hallucinatory embrace.

“We don't really know what goes on in the mind of someone in a coma, but there's glimpses of hope,” he says. “There's fantasies. It's all related to stepping out of yourself as a social creature and just let your imagination surf through your thoughts. I think that's how Coma came to be. It's an imaginary album.”

In a deep and wide-ranging conversation, KNOTFEST’s Jon Garcia sat down the Gaerea frontman to discuss the band’s drive to always try something new, how the studio atmosphere helped shape Coma, Nathan Lorenzana’s incredible ballpoint artwork, the respect Gaerea has for Bring Me the Horizon and Post Malone, getting to hit the road with Zeal & Ardor this fall and more.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What did the Mirage album cycle teach you about this band?

GAEREA: Looking back at Mirage, it definitely exposed us to an audience that likes the genre that we play, but also a lot of other extreme mental enthusiasts. It's an album that opened quite a few doors for us. We were able to tour the world for the first time, go to the States. We did all the world, mostly.

I think it really kept the flame alive in just a different way, where we understood that we were on a different level. We're now a band that will look into every detail for everything to be perfect, and these details keep on growing as the team grows. So Mirage brought that to us on a functional, structural level.

On an art level, it's just laying some of the pieces that we used for the new record. It's a very different album from Limbo. Limbo was– I mean, I look at it with some disdain sometimes. I'm still very proud of it, but Limbo was an album where we wanted to be fast, furious, dissonant. A bit of everything we liked in the bands that we dreamt of touring with. Then that happened, and I think for us it was just like, ‘Okay, it's time to move on. To experience something different. Be a bit more atmospheric with our sound, maybe open some different gates that are not strictly inside black metal.’

We just kept on going with those paths and it definitely laid the ground rules for the basic work that we had for the new album.

How do you want Coma to distinguish Gaerea from the previous album?

G: “I don't care much for labels or labeling bands. I mean, we live in a world where some of our biggest bands are not straight within one unique genre. But I think Coma is just not a black metal album anymore. It has all the foundations of Gaerea, what we started in Unsettling Whispers went on through Mirage. I just think it's something else.

We understood that with Mirage, we had a very strong album. People loved it. We made so many new fans, and it was just phenomenal for us. Then should we do another Mirage? I mean, should we write the same songs in a different way, but with the same exact vibe to it? And I just feel it's fucking boring to keep on writing the same things and doing the same things, even routine wise.

Once we let that go, I think the composition of Coma is way more liberating, because you just realize I don't want to make a black metal album anymore. I want to make a Gaerea album, something that continues some of the things we had in Mirage that kind of defined us as people. Some people would say they hear a song and they know exactly that it's us because it has our own vibe to it, and I just wanted to grab that and continue without thinking that, ‘I need to put a blast beat here and there,’ you know? 

It's still a quite fast album based on the singles that were released. But if you hear a song like “World Ablaze”, that would never fit in the Limbo album, for example. This is us letting go of labels. If we're not a black metal anymore by the end of the day, I don't fucking care. We’re proud of where we are. Again, I don't care for labeling or gatekeeping of genres. This band is not ‘kvlt’ anymore. We never were. Let's fucking face it, we never were a ‘kvlt’ band. We were never in the inner circles of any black metal festivals or labels or all of that stuff. 

So I think it's just natural for us to seek other things. We’re growing as artists and human beings and seeing the world for the second time, third time now, and it's just like, ‘All right, let's do something else. Whatever our minds lead us too, let's just go with that.’”

 

 

 

It feels like Gaerea has really found its voice and is playing within the world you all have created. You’re not playing off your influences anymore, you're playing off what you want to do as a band.

G: I think we found our voice within the last two years. Now that we have that we can do whatever the fuck we want with this. It’s fifth studio album, ff we count the first EP. If we have to depart from something, I think it's now.

We always try to take risks on everything we do. After people listen, they can decide if it's an extreme metal album, if it's a black metal album, a hardcore album. There’s lots of that in there. We never wanted to be a specifically black metal band that fits within all the Norwegian scenes and all that. We love to play Norway. We have amazing shows there. But why not be a band that sounds different, that tries to sound in its own unique way? I mean, it's not the most refreshing thing in the world, but at least, I think it's something that defines us.

So, yeah, I think it's more about that. Playing with the voice that our fans already gave us – at least some of it – and now we can mess things up, you know? Destroy a bit of what people were already expecting, and that's what we did with “World Ablaze” by releasing it as a first single.

We were in the studio, and we had this song that doesn't quite fit the whole scheme of the album, but we all just felt if we're going to do this, it needs to be the first thing. We need to piss some people off. We need to get a younger crowd into this or secure them. We are a band that brings a lot of new crowds to these venues, and that’s something I'm so proud of. It's amazing to see the new generation finally coming to shows. So we need to take the risks and release this hardcore track as a first single. And I think it worked. I mean, I'm very happy with it.

Some people didn't like it, some people loved it, some people hated it, but it is the kind of thing that you want. You want a reaction. You want people to try to understand where you're going. And I think it's a very cryptic way of starting the cycle with a song that nobody was expecting. 

How did these new songs come together? 

G: Writing music is something just very personal. It needs to be within your own world. Then you'll show it to the guys and girl and then they will bring their magic into the room.

But it all starts with one guy, one computer, a few guitars, a few sounds, and just letting your mind flow through it for a couple of months and see where it leads. I think it's great for us that it happens that way. It give me time to reflect on a lot of things and question myself quite a bit. When you're in a room with a lot of people, there's a lot of things that come out spontaneously, and it's great, but it's just not the way we work. We never worked that way. We don't jam. We get together to do whatever we set ourselves to do.

There are a lot of nods to introspection, self exploration, success not bringing happiness, and other misty qualities on the record. Was there a lyrical theme or concept you had ahead of time like on the last album? Or did the subjects of the songs reveal themselves as the music did?

G: Coma differs a bit there. For Mirage, if we could we would make a whole movie of all the things that I had in my head for the album. That would be amazing… but maybe in the future.

For Coma, it's a bit more of a dreamy album in my opinion, because it's all about this guy that is in a coma and everything happens in his head: be it memories, be it imagination, be it nothingness. We don't really know what goes on in the mind of someone in a coma, but there's glimpses of hope. There's fantasies. It's all related to stepping out of yourself as a social creature and just let your imagination surf through your thoughts. I think that's how Coma came to be. It's an imaginary album.

It's quite the opposite of Mirage, because Mirage was about concrete people, concrete moments. Stuff we saw, stuff we lived through, and I think this is exactly the opposite. It's more of a rambling album. It takes some steps away from the whole Vortex Society world that we created, even though I still feel it belongs there. Just focus on one individual that is actually not present or there because he's asleep; so everything happens in his mind.

That's how I see it. And of course, it might change as we go. Because my ideas of the albums that I write keep on changing as we play these songs live. all those things. It's a never ending thought about myself about the life we chose as artists. I mean, everything is kind of related to us as human beings within the band.

Is there an interconnected story throughout the album, or should the listener look at it through the lens of a nebulous idea that anyone can put their own conclusions into.

G: I would say it's loose ideas and stories.

I mean, the thing you mentioned about success not bringing any kind of happiness, it's very ingrained within the last song, Kingdom of Thorns.

But we also make sure that the lyrics this time– I mean, if you compare these lyrics with whatever we wrote before, these are very concrete lyrics where we wanted people to understand what we're talking about without using too many metaphors. The other albums are a bit more poetic. I would say this one is just written as if you really want people to imagine exactly that scenario that you had in your head.

In Mirage, it was something like I had my idea and it's like giving the tools to people for them to imagine their own things. Again, this album is the opposite and all the songs are seen as rambling thoughts of this person that is not exactly dead or alive. So everything happens in this, in this nebulous mist of thoughts. And again, I think that's just how my mind works sometimes. So it just bleeds through the concept of the album, but I think it's just very a truthful way of expressing that through this album. It's different stories, different eras, but it's, it's all within the same mind and world of this person,

 

 

 

You mentioned the positivity, there are a lot more moments of resolution and a lighter way of looking at the world. Was that a conscious decision?

G: I think it’s just the way we all are, actually. We're very different people within the band. But one thing that we can all agree on is that it doesn't matter how shitty the situation is, at the end of the day it's going to be great because we're all together on stage. There's always tomorrow. There's always getting out of the room and coming back later with a clear mind.

We’ve just been through very rough years. We postponed like two or three years of our lives. We're never going to get that back. So it's all about just giving everything that you have, and we do it every night in shows. Let's just go all the fucking way, because there's no time to waste and in the end it's going to be fun, because we're meant to do this. I really believe that we're all meant to be right here, doing this and having fun with it and growing as artists and human beings.

So I guess all of this translates also into the lyrics, [which] are always depressing, and sad, and very harsh on the person that it's about. But I mean, there's moments like “World Ablaze” where, in the end, the cage opens and even though it's the last day alive for this character in this song, there's still mountains. There's still the first rays of light. There's still the colors of the world. It is what it is. We're not eternal beings. Maybe sometimes just enjoying the ride is just the best thing to do, and not focusing so much on accomplishing goals that were never truly accomplishable. 

What do you think is the biggest surprise that came out of Coma? 

G: Oh, the biggest surprise for sure is the face of our producer, when we showed up with these songs in the studio. [laughs] It was like, ‘I don’t know this band anymore! Now you guys have clean singing and all that shit?’ But in a good mood. He’s very happy to see us growing in that matter. 

It’s still very early in the game for me to answer some of these questions because you’re just getting started. Everything is so unborn right now. If you ask me this question in a year, I’ll have a proper answer. So far, I’m just happy that we keep on releasing music. I was not expecting for us to get out of Mirage so fast. I thought we could still go a bit further [on that album cycle]. But it just happened. It’s an album that was written while on tour. So it’s like, doing pre-production in a van in Richmond, Virginia or something, you know?

I think overall, it’s an album that impresses me by the fact that we’re about to make big jumps, big leaps and I’m just very curious to see if they are leaps forward or backwards.

How did you and producer Miguel Tereso talk about how you wanted to sonically approach Coma?

G: The great thing about the process of how we recorded Coma is just fantastic, and I hope we can keep it. We went to this studio in a rural area in Portugal for two, three weeks, cooking for ourselves – just alone in this big house, recording this album. Very chill.  We had this room in the back of the studio where people could smoke, and that's where we cooked and just had fun at night.

We’d just ramble. About releasing World Ablaze as a first song, or not being quite sure what kind of band this is anymore in the producer’s mindset. It’s not like he’s judging, of course not. But like, ‘How do I make this sound? You guys don’t want to blast beat that much anymore, so I think this album needs to be more open, more cinematic.’

At the end, we just agreed, you mix and master it as a rock album. It needs to be big. It needs to be massive. Sometimes it needs to have that charisma to it, that grandiose kind of vibe to it that we never actually had because everything we wrote was so fast and so frantic; because it was meant to be that way. 

You just see the record in a different way when you are, for two or three weeks, just trapped in this environment from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. dealing with this and making choices that will define the future of your career right there. I think that was the big change for us, and it also built this record that way.

Mirage kind of sounded pretty much like we saw it in the beginning when we were writing. Coma went way deeper with these artistic points. Small things, but it just felt so important [for me] to always be there even if it wasn’t my time to record. It was so inspiring to work this way. I kind of feel like all of the important choices that we made in that studio are going to define this album, because it was stuff that we all worked in that room for. We had time to do shitty takes, just for fun. But it sparks that idea, you know?

So it just felt great to be in an environment with all these artistic people, and everyone is looking at the band with a perspective of ‘Let’s make this sound like you guys and not like anybody else.’ Not listening to other songs, other music. We’re just focusing on this and without being maniac, trying for it to sound unique.

At the end of the day that’s what heavy metal, and art, is all about. Artists just doing whatever they want to do that feels genuine and truthful for their emotions at that time. 

G: I absolutely respect when an artist just changes everything for themselves. Look at… I don't know, fucking Post Malone is doing country now. That guy could continue to do hip-hop for the rest of his life, and he would still be right next to Taylor Swift on streams forever.

But he took a risk because he can sing, you know, and it's, it's all about that. For me, I fucking respect that. Even Bring Me the Horizon – changing everything after Sempeternal, making this pop, arena rock album – I respect that so much. It's all about you growing, you don't want to be that same person forever.

I mean, there's things that we wrote for Unsettling Whispers that I don't actually agree or believe anymore. It’s normal growth in its and it's okay for you to be wrong about something and and fuck it up while you do it. Changing something doesn’t mean it’s going to be great. Sometimes it’s just shit. It doesn’t feel organic or real because sometimes people just change because they think the fans will like them when they change.

Here… I don’t care, man. I mean, we have a small group of very close fans, and I praise them so much. But we’ve got nothing to lose. At the end of the day, if I listen to Coma and think that all those songs would fit in the other albums, it's going to be a complete failure in my mind. Because I want to change. I want to evolve. It's just how we're all wired in this band. We want to evolve. We don't want to blast-beat all the time forever, you know?

 

 

 

Nathan Lorenzana’s ballpoint pen artwork is extraordinary. How did that come to be?

G: I just had this idea popping in my head that I wanted an eye for the cover art. This big eye, no fancy bullshit around it. Then I started thinking about some of the themes of the album. Like the song “Suspended” which deals with The Fallen Man of 9/11 and all those people. We just started adding elements, me and Nathan were chucking around these ideas.

The moment he sent me the first sketch, it was exactly that. Some things he ornamented. I told him I want this city vibe around this eye, as if the whole city was built around this massive eye that sees it all and deals with all these emotions of the urbanistic places. It was just spot on, what he came up with.

I wanted something simple, just a white cover. It was time for us to try something different, be bold with whatever we came up with. The Mirage cover is a statement, you know? You look at it, you know what it is. But now I wanted something that people can pick from the shelves, and they don't know what the fuck is going on there. Again, taking risks. That could be any kind of genre, but it's something that has so much meaning to us, to all the themes of this album. Everything is in there, in little detail.

He did such an amazing job. When I heard that there was this guy that could just make realistic Ball Pen realistic work. I'd seen stuff from him before and I thought it was just black and white photos, and then you look at it. Jesus, man. This guy is spending all his life with a ball pen, making this sick work. I thought it was so fucking good.

Here's a guy that gives it all. Gives all his time to his art, and I really respect that. We do the same here. I think that's what convinced me. He said I need two, three months to do this. I told him take four, take five. I don't care. You’re gonna do something fucking amazing with this, take your time. He came up with something that I think is our boldest cover yet, for sure. In some ways the most peaceful, but also chaotic artwork we ever had. That’s what I love about it.

You’re hitting the road in North America with Zeal & Ardor this November, themselves a band who are risk takers and releasing a new kind of album for themselves. What are you most looking forward to about the tour?

G: Going on a run with Zeal & Ardor is a small dream for us. We always listen to them. Again, here's a band that takes all the risks that they imagine, that makes them so unique. That's a big inspiration for us. And they’re just amazing fucking musicians. So it’s a big honor to go on this tour with them. It’s also a very important album for them, the new one.

We're looking forward to the States, we have quite a following there. By now, we've been carving our way through the US in the last two tours and it's going to be fun to play for a different crowd. I mean, we did two black metal tours before. Now, of course, we're going with Zeal & Ardor. They draw a bit of black metal people, but also a lot of other other people into their show. They're a bit of this chameleon kind of band.

We're playing in some cities that we have never played before. Very happy to be back in the west coast and now getting those shows back to Portland, Kansas and Vancouver – which we canceled the first tour we did with Rotting Christ, and we promised we would be back, and now we are.

So I'm just very, very excited for coming back to North America. We were so very well received. We have a lot of friends there and, and it's just fun tours. We fell in love with [the States], and as much as we can, we're going to come back. This will not be our last tour in North America, for sure.

Coma by Gaerea is available everywhere October 25 via Season of Mist. Get the album - HERE

 

Catch Gaerea on tour supporting Zeal & Ardor for an extensive North American run alongside Zetra starting next month. A list of dates and cities can be found below. Get tickets - HERE