Review Summary: Bring Me The Gaerea-zon
Full video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqPQDujB7wg
If Gaerea were already operating a space that made black metal purists turn their nose up, they have shifted even further in that direction on
Loss. While I am not usually one to cry about bands 'selling out', I think this is a clear example of a band attempting to capture a wider audience in the mainstream. And it plays out as it usually does - toning down the most extreme and inaccessible (and most exciting) aspects of their sound that brought them to the dance in the first place. Make no mistake, there is almost no semblence of black metal present, and this has more akin to Bring Me The Horizon, current Architects, or any other band at the top of a Spotify metal playlist. Gaerea have directly lifted many elements from those bands in an attempt to copy that success - the 'epic' ambient sections, pianos, basic electronic elements, cleans (which are not good) and semi-cleans (so-so), and overall very cheesy, melodramatic tone. This also features production similar to most mainstream metal records - compressed to *** with no dynamic range, sauceless guitars and drums, bass thats inaudiable. And finally the song-writing is more dumbed down and diluted - no prizes for guessing what
'Submerged' or
'Nomad' are about before you even hear them.
The opener
'Luminary' immediately introduces the big, 'epic' sound of the album. With it's mid-temp chugs, it's clearly an attempt at an anthemic number that will open setlists for years to come, and it gave me very Bring Me The Horizon vibes. We then get
'Submerged' with its sadboi pianos, which sound sort of synthetic and touched up. The tone of the track is incredibly overwrought and melodramatic. It also serves to highlight the albums biggest strength and weakness - the vocals. When sticking with the intense, raw, emotional harsh screams, they stick pack a punch and sound incredible. Our anonymous frontman's screams still carry a tonne of passion and power.
'Hellbound' is a great showcase of this and has a killer vocal performance which frankly carries the track. Sadly this is one of the few tracks free of the extra-curricular *** Gaerea have introduced and lets the strength of the performances do the work. Many tracks like
'Submerged and
'Phoenix' still feature these awesome harsh screams and shouts, but are soiled with these awful cleans or semi-cleans.
After
'Hellbound' comes
'Uncontrolled', which features some groovy, grinding djenty riffs, which are kinda generic but at least they are some honest-to-goodness riffs. The biggest offender is
'Cyclone' which starts with a warm opening with these ***ty, over produced, clearly touched up cleans, only topped by the ***ty over produced cleans on the chorus, which really accuentates how compressed the mix is when everything is hitting at once.
'LBYRNTH' (spelt upper case and without vowels because its so mysterious) is a short electronic number with female vocals, which serves no purpose other than being a boring and uninteresting interlude. I assume the intention is to build anticipation for the following
'Nomad', but it fails to do so.
'Nomad' has these cheesy choral background vocals clearly trying to make it feel epic. It also features perhaps the most laughable chorus on the album that leans dangerous close to buttrock (or buttmetal?). The we get the closer
'Stardust' which once again opens with these overly melodramatic, over-produced cleans over this weepy piano. It's some real pop metal, wannabe Sleep Token guff.
It's not as if Gaerea's old material was the heaviest, rawest or most authentic black metal, but it was heavy, pummelling and managed to come off as epic and emotional on the strength of the bands performances and songwriting. On
Loss Gaerea demonstrate they still have a tonne of talent and pull moments like this off, but ultimately it represents a direction shift to sand down the rough edges and add in some of the cheesiest tropes from current mainstream leaders, and I'm not here for it.
