2019 was a horrific year for many people. Myself included. I relied heavily on music to make it through that year, and no album was more important to my mental health, than the immeasurably cathartic Limbo, from Gaerea.
Limbo was my introduction to the band, and from the first time I heard it, it meant so much to me. Brimming with passion and raw emotion unmatched by any other band, it immediately resonated with me in an extremely rare way. It easily claimed my top spot in my Album of the Year list, and it will always be a perfect album in my mind.
Next came Mirage. It was an outstanding album, but designed to appeal to a broader audience, and with that change, some of the raw emotion vanished. It was an important album to me as well, and showcased the band’s growth. I loved it, but not in the same way that I did Limbo. When I did my Album of the year list in 2022, Mirage claimed a well deserved top 5 spot.
Now it’s 2024, and it’s the strongest year for extreme metal releases in three decades. There’s an overabundance of incredible albums coming out every week. The staff here at Harsh Vocals talks about it all the time. Album of the year lists are fast-approaching and we all have 60-70 albums contending for 30 spots. My playlist of albums that I would rank as a 3.5 or better out of 5, is 288 hours long! I’m typing all of this to illustrate not only how much amazing music I’ve heard all year, but also to hit home one key point…
Coma is the best album I’ve heard this year.
In the best year for extreme music since 1994, Gaerea has somehow created an absolute masterpiece that stands at the top of that list.
Coma is full of surprises, and Gaerea obviously planned ahead as to how they would release their singles, so as to not give away anything about the changes to their sound, their growth as a band, or their return to those raw emotional elements that weren’t as prevalent on Mirage. The four singles which are now combined into the “Suspended” EP on Spotify are all great individual songs, but as with all Gaerea albums, the sum is much greater than the parts.
These four songs (Suspended, Unkown, Hope Shatters, and World Ablaze) are passionate, catchy, and technically excellent, but they also mostly sound like the Gaerea we’ve come to know and love.
Because of that, prior to hearing the album in full, I was expecting a continuation of what they did with Mirage, and figured this album would definitely be near the top of my end of year list, but I was completely underestimating them with that line of thinking.
The other six songs on the album are full of unexpected elements – many of which still give me goosebumps after twenty listens to the album. Frisson is a real thing.
The album begins with the track “The Poet’s Ballet”, which includes a short instrumental that leads into a hauntingly beautiful bit of doom-metal style clean singing from their impressive vocalist (who simply goes by the voice). Yes, one of the surprises is clean singing… and despite this being the Harsh Vocals review site, I do love clean singing if it’s done well. In this song, the cleans are absolutely dripping with emotion. Melancholic and gorgeous, Gaerea immediately let you know you’re in for something new with this album. About three minutes into the track, the melody explodes into a pummeling assault of emotionally driven vocals backed by furious guitars and thunderous drums. Every single time I’ve listened to this track, those clean vocals have given me chills.
Next we move into “Hope Shatters”, “Suspended”, and then “World Ablaze”, all of which you can hear at the Spotify link above. They’re all excellent tracks, and you should definitely listen to them if you haven’t.
Then comes the title track, “Coma”. This track begins with a series of savage, emotion-filled screams, before leading into catchy drumwork and punk-inspired guitars. Slowly the song morphs into more traditional post-black style guitars, keeping the frentic energy, until midway through the song, when a coma-like atmosphere builds and the song slows to a pace that feels dreamlike. It’s simply beautiful. Shortly thereafter though, the sleeper is awakened to a barrage of emotional screams and terrorizing music, before slipping back into that softer atmosphere where it concludes.
The softer melody continues with the next track, and my favorite track of the album, “Wilted Flower”. This track is post-black perfection, and includes the doom-laden clean vocals I mentioned before, as well a poetic bit of spoken word melancholy. I’m usually averse to spoken word sections in my music, but it’s expertly executed here. This song has so much sorrow and passion built into it that it almost hurts to listen to it. It feels almost unreal that a song can make you feel this way.
Next up is “Reborn”, which starts with an ascending tempo and the needed aggression that wasn’t present in the previous track. With catchy and memorable riffs, this song feels like it could have been plucked from their Unsettling Whispers album. It is aggressive Gaerea at their best.
“Shapeshifter” continues the experience by starting with a slower, layered sound. It builds a dark and somber atmosphere that eventually grows into a similar aggressive, layered sound. There’s several background riffs that have a lighter tone, and almost create a feeling of hope while the other layer of riffs continues to drown in the hopelessness that you expect from Gaerea. It’s a strange dichotomy that’s almost theatrical in nature, but it’s executed in a way that’s beautiful and memorable.
Next up is “Unknown”, which is one of the previously released singles. Every time I hear that opening riff, it reminds me of a Ghost song – Catchy and somehow almost fun. Of course, the song builds into something way more aggressive and harrowing, but that underlying fun riff is still there. I really like this track, and it fits well in it’s placement on the album.
The final track is called “Kingdom of Thorns” and is another emotionally driven journey through beautiful agony. It’s more of a straightforward Gaerea song than some of the others I’ve written about above, but it’s fast, aggressive, layered, and excellent.
Everything on Coma is outstanding. I’m blown away time and again by Gaerea’s impressive musicianship and songwriting. I never thought they would be able to surpass Limbo, but in many ways they have with this one. It’s perfect.
10/10 for me.
Gaerea – Coma Releases October 25th, 2004
Preorder on one of the sites below:
Gaerea Webstore: https://www.gaerea.com/store
Season of Mist: https://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/band/gaerea
Bandcamp: https://gaerea.bandcamp.com/music
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