Cathartic post black metal masters GAEREA are now revealing a secret screening to kick start their upcoming tour in North America! The clandestine event will take place on Thursday, September 28, at the original Kuma’s Corner in Chicago, IL! The event is free to attend and starts promptly at 7:30 P.M. and band will be present for a meet and greet with fans who dare to enter the vortex. Plus, fans can enter a raffle in which one lucky winner will be given a pair of tickets to see the band’s performance at Metro on September 30.

Gaerea comments, “This is the death of ‘Mirage’ and the moment we start to let go of our world just so another one can be born. This unique event will showcase everything Gaerea has ever stood for. Get ready to witness something truly special, crafted specially to each and everyone of you who wishes to join us for an evening we shall never forget.” 

In addition, Kuma’s has collaborated with Gaerea for a signature burger, which is inspired by the Francesinha sandwich, a comforting dish that is native to the band’s hometown of Porto (PT). The Gaerea burger is modeled after Kuma’s famous Slayer burger with a Portuguese twist. The sandwich has a bed of fresh house-cut fries, texas toast, an angus beef patty, sausage, uncured ham, shredded monterrey jack cheese, and a fried egg, all smothered in a decadent Francesinha sauce.

Following the event, Gaerea will be kicking off its North American tour with Wolves in the Throne Room, Blackbraid, and Hoaxed on September 29 in St. Louis, MO, which will then conclude on October 24 in Denver, CO. Tickets are now available and can be found below along with the full itinerary!

Gaerea will be supporting its incendiary 2022 release, ‘Mirage,’ debuting a new live aesthetic! ‘Mirage’ was ranked among the best records of last year by Decibel Magazine, A&P Reacts, Ghost Cult Magazine, Sick Drummer, and more! The album is available HERE.

GAEREA (w/ Wolves in the Throne Room, Blackbraid, Hoaxed)
Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge North American Tour

09/29: St Louis, MO @ Red Flag [TICKETS]
09/30: Chicago, IL @ Metro [TICKETS]
10/01: St. Paul, MN @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall [TICKETS]
10/03: Detroit, MI @ El Club [TICKETS]
10/04: Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace [TICKETS]
10/05: Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount [TICKETS]
10/06: Boston, MA @ Big Night Live [TICKETS]
10/07: Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom [TICKETS]
10/08: Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Monarch [TICKETS]
10/10: Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts [TICKETS]
10/11: Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage [TICKETS]
10/12: Richmond, VA @ The Canal Club [TICKETS]
10/13: Greensboro, NC @ Hangar 1819 [TICKETS]
10/14: Atlanta, GA @ The Loft [TICKETS]
10/15: Tampa, FL @ Orpheum [TICKETS]
10/17: Dallas, TX @ Echo Lounge & Music Hall [TICKETS]
10/18: Austin, TX @ Come And Take It Live [TICKETS]
10/20: Albuquerque, NM @ Sister [TICKETS]
10/21: Tucson, AZ @ Encore [TICKETS]
10/23: Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall [TICKETS]
10/24: Denver, CO @ The Oriental Theater [TICKETS]

Live EU Dates:

10/28: Black Box Mikkeli (FI)
01/05-06/24: Meh Suff! (CH)
05/03/24: Karmoygeddon (NO)

Behind black shrouds of obscurity and desolation, the men of GAEREA deliver their odes in cascading maelstroms of aggression and beauty. Emerging from the age of pandemic to whatever awaits humanity next, the Portuguese horde remains on the frontlines of the next generation of extreme metal. With an EP and two albums to their name, GAEREA has rapidly distinguished themselves from the thousands of bands toiling away in the underground. Brewing their cauldron of sound from a recipe of pounding black-metal blast mixed with a touch of harrowed, reflective longing, many devotees of the darkened arts have flocked to their banner. With the emergence of third full-length album Mirage, those numbers are sure to grow. 

Underground metal itself is a strange and cyclical beast. Trends come and trends go. But at no point in the genre’s history have we borne witness to what happened to the world in 2020. GAEREA met this challenge by releasing their second album, the aptly titled Limbo, to excellent world reception. In the meantime, they found the total suspension of interactive life as it was previously known to be the perfect breeding ground for further creation and making. As the troupe’s main songwriter elaborates, “I lost two precious years of my life, years that I would rather have spent touring and growing as an artist. But they were crucial for us, these years, because not too many bands stayed relevant and productive. The pandemic gave us the time to make the best release we could. All the promo-shoots, interviews, videos, we all had time to prepare for everything. Mirage was the product of a sudden inspiration. The basic parts were written over about two weeks.”

Such a stunning admission goes to show that art is fickle, and the artist is merely a vessel through which the sweet sorcery we call music may flow. It can mute itself to frustrating silence – or it can explode into being regardless of all consideration. For this band on the rise, it is most certainly the latter. Sizzling with ambition from day one, GAEREA may present one unique face to their audience, masked and enshrouded, but the truth is they have not remained changeless. “We are not the same band who recorded Limbo,” he insists. “We are more eager to take on the world. If the pandemic taught us anything it is that nothing is certain.”

This lack of certainty plays heavily into newest creation Mirage. As its name suggests, the inability to trust what our senses are telling us could be construed as one of the album’s central themes. Rather than constrict their art to mythological references or anti-religious tropes, GAEREA instead plumb the depths of the human experiences of isolation and suffering. “The concept, the subject, of each song is everyone, you, me . . . if people were alone together in Limbo, in Mirage they are truly alone. Nobody is truly real until they are alone.” 

If existential dread could be turned into sound, GAEREA have carved their own philosophical path through its stygian tunnels. It isn’t Satan, demons, death, or even suicide that is waiting for us there. “What if people finally reached their goal,” he posits, “to end their suffering, and instead of dying they find themselves in a new reality, lost in a big city they were once a part of – they don’t know if anyone else is still alive. They are alone inside their own world.” This theme of being alone in a world full of familiar scenes, unable to end things and unable to reach anyone else, might well terrify the listener more effectively than any glimpse into the imagined hellscapes of our nightmares. Being isolated in your own world is the real nightmare, and GAEREA strum the chords of this horror with nuance and a miserable grace. 

Boasting a superior production that threads the needle between clarity and causticness, GAEREA unwaveringly admit their loyalty to countryman and producer Miguel Tereso of Demigod Recordings. “Miguel is fantastic,” enthuses the band’s primary composer. “He comes from a brutal death metal background. I thought if this guy can pull off a punchy, modern, but still authentic production with a slam / death metal band, I wonder what he can do with a band like GAEREA. He has a vision for a sound, and that is what I really like. He is not a black metal fan, but it’s this very external set of ears and eyes from a guy who really knows his craft, and he brings all of that to our sound.” The fruits of this union are quite evident, as the turbulent moods of the title track are so wonderfully tossed between tension-building moments, and the explosive payoffs which set GAEREA apart from so many who try but come up short. 

Tormented leads and building riffs sit atop some seriously explosive drumming, waxing and waning, on “Arson,” a tempest of moods and one of the album’s centrepieces. Emotion, at times sounding triumphant in brilliantly wrought guitar leads, is skewered by vocals that bustle with shattering despair. The dichotomy is magnificent to behold. GAEREA’s composer makes no mistake. “I want to hear the throat on the album, and if we are a vocals-driven band, I don’t want to over-process them during the recording. Striking that balance is one of the beauties for me in this record.”

In a world that increasingly elevates the shallow and the narcissistic, GAEREA pursues an artistic struggle of inward isolation, honest self-examination, and a dogged refusal to bow to the void that awaits. Thus, the persistence of their shadowed visages, draped in the masks which codify their anonymity while also creating a reliable extreme metal brand that fans can appreciate, especially in the live setting. “GAEREA are truly ourselves when we put these masks on, and we transcend into something different, and primitive,” he asserts. “It still makes total sense, and this band would not be a band anymore if we ever dropped the masks.”

As GAEREA prepares the release of Mirage, the world has resumed functioning, and as it lurches onward into its bleak future, one could stipulate that the pressure may be on to continue its rise amid the clamor of this renewal of activity. Does this challenge intimidate GAEREA? “We want to do better, but I don’t feel any pressure because we are in very good hands with the people we work with. We are building a strong team that really cares for us, stage-wise, promotional-wise, website and sales-wise. We are building a very structured confident teams that aims for the same goals we do. What I truly care about is continuing our ever-growing concept of the band GAEREA, and not becoming sterile, and I would not want people to be unaffected by our music. In the end we’re trying to express something within ourselves, and I don’t want it to be too complicated.”

The beauty of GAEREA lies in the directness and simplicity found within their florid tapestry of extremity and aggression. Whether it is in the less-polished aural dynamite of their self-titled EP, or in the lustrous textures of Mirage, GAEREA is building a mighty edifice of underground metal. With talons dipped in the inky blood of black metal and scraped across the flesh of human suffering, GAEREA is leading a charge into the future of darkness, and all those who find beauty and power in the dark side of existence would do well to take heed. 

WE ARE GAEREA.

Bio: Nic Franco

Recording Studio: Demigod Recordings
Producer/Sound engineer: Miguel Tereso
Mix/Master: Miguel Tereso (Demigod Recordings)
Cover artwork: Saros Collective

Follow // Listen: Bandcamp – Official Website – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter – YouTube – Spotify – Apple Music

Cathartic black metal outfit GAEREA have announced new European tour dates! The Vortex Society will not only bring darkness to various club shows during this run, also festivals will receive the mark of ‘Mirage’. A full list of confirmed dates, including festival appearances and ticket links, can be found below.

GAEREA comment trek: “The Undying Mirage shall march once again over Europe this Summer! In June, the Vortex Society will hunt several new Countries alongside a selection of massive Festivals. 15 Mind bending Nights of Cathartic Horror Soundscapes await. Join us!“

GAEREA will be playing in support of their latest album ‘Mirage’, which was released on September 23, 2022 via Season of Mist. The album can still be found in various formats HERE and streamed on all digital platforms HERE.

GAEREA 
08 Apr 23 Oslo (NO) Inferno Festival 2023 [TICKETS]
30 Apr 23 Hengelo (NL) Bloodshed Fest 2023 [TICKETS]
07 Jun 23 Budapest (HU) Durer Kert [TICKETS]
08 Jun 23 Belgrad (RS) Zappa
09 Jun 23 Zagreb (HR) Klub Mochrava
10 Jun 23 Vicenza (IT) Revolution Club [TICKETS]
11 Jun 23 Torino (IT) Ziggy Club
12 Jun 23 Zurich (CH) Dynamo, Werk 21 [TICKETS]
13 Jun 23 Pratteln (CH) Z7 [TICKETS]
14 Jun 23 Mainz (DE) Schon Schon [TICKETS]
15 Jun 23 Arnhem (NL) Willemeen [TICKETS]
17 Jun 23 Copenhagen (DK) Copenhell [TICKETS]
18 Jun 23 Gothenburg (SE) The Abyss [TICKETS]
21 Jun 23 Krakow (PL) Kamienna12
22 Jun 23 Warsaw (PL) Hydrozagadka
24 Jun 23 Spalene Porici (CZ) Basinfire Festival [TICKETS]
25 Jun 23 Ferropolis (DE) Full Force Festival [TICKETS]
07 Jul 23 Velké Mezirici (CZ) Fajtfest [TICKETS]
08 Jul 23 Jablunkov (CZ) Rock Café Southock
14 Jul 23 Anyksciai (LT) Devilstone Festival [TICKETS]
29 Jul 23 Freissenbuttel (DE) Burning Q Festival [TICKETS]
05 Aug 23 Brasov (RO) Rockstadt Festival [TICKETS]
11 Aug 23 Derbyshire (UK) Bloodstock Open Air [TICKETS]
12 Aug 23 Kortrijk (BE) Alcatraz Festival [TICKETS]
18 Aug 23 Dinkelsbuhl (DE) Summerbreeze Festival [TICKETS]
24 Aug 23 Eisfeld (DE) Wolfzeit Festival [TICKETS]
26 Aug 23 Walbrzych (PL) Metal Mine Festival [TICKETS]

The cover artwork for ‘Mirage’, which is created by the SAROS Collective.

Track-list
1. Memoir (8:17)
2. Salve (5:26) [WATCH]
3. Deluge (6:31)
4. Arson (8:54)
5. Ebb (5:32)
6. Mirage (6:38) [WATCH]
7. Mantle (5:17) [WATCH]
8. Laude (6:26) [WATCH]
9. Dormant (Bonus track) (7:46)
Total: 1:00:47

Behind black shrouds of obscurity and desolation, the men of GAEREA deliver their odes in cascading maelstroms of aggression and beauty. Emerging from the age of pandemic to whatever awaits humanity next, the Portuguese horde remains on the frontlines of the next generation of extreme metal. With an EP and two albums to their name, GAEREA has rapidly distinguished themselves from the thousands of bands toiling away in the underground. Brewing their cauldron of sound from a recipe of pounding black-metal blast mixed with a touch of harrowed, reflective longing, many devotees of the darkened arts have flocked to their banner. With the emergence of third full-length album Mirage, those numbers are sure to grow. 

Underground metal itself is a strange and cyclical beast. Trends come and trends go. But at no point in the genre’s history have we borne witness to what happened to the world in 2020. GAEREA met this challenge by releasing their second album, the aptly titled Limbo, to excellent world reception. In the meantime, they found the total suspension of interactive life as it was previously known to be the perfect breeding ground for further creation and making. As the troupe’s main songwriter elaborates, “I lost two precious years of my life, years that I would rather have spent touring and growing as an artist. But they were crucial for us, these years, because not too many bands stayed relevant and productive. The pandemic gave us the time to make the best release we could. All the promo-shoots, interviews, videos, we all had time to prepare for everything. Mirage was the product of a sudden inspiration. The basic parts were written over about two weeks.”

Such a stunning admission goes to show that art is fickle, and the artist is merely a vessel through which the sweet sorcery we call music may flow. It can mute itself to frustrating silence – or it can explode into being regardless of all consideration. For this band on the rise, it is most certainly the latter. Sizzling with ambition from day one, GAEREA may present one unique face to their audience, masked and enshrouded, but the truth is they have not remained changeless. “We are not the same band who recorded Limbo,” he insists. “We are more eager to take on the world. If the pandemic taught us anything it is that nothing is certain.”

This lack of certainty plays heavily into newest creation Mirage. As its name suggests, the inability to trust what our senses are telling us could be construed as one of the album’s central themes. Rather than constrict their art to mythological references or anti-religious tropes, GAEREA instead plumb the depths of the human experiences of isolation and suffering. “The concept, the subject, of each song is everyone, you, me . . . if people were alone together in Limbo, in Mirage they are truly alone. Nobody is truly real until they are alone.” 

If existential dread could be turned into sound, GAEREA have carved their own philosophical path through its stygian tunnels. It isn’t Satan, demons, death, or even suicide that is waiting for us there. “What if people finally reached their goal,” he posits, “to end their suffering, and instead of dying they find themselves in a new reality, lost in a big city they were once a part of – they don’t know if anyone else is still alive. They are alone inside their own world.” This theme of being alone in a world full of familiar scenes, unable to end things and unable to reach anyone else, might well terrify the listener more effectively than any glimpse into the imagined hellscapes of our nightmares. Being isolated in your own world is the real nightmare, and GAEREA strum the chords of this horror with nuance and a miserable grace. 

Boasting a superior production that threads the needle between clarity and causticness, GAEREA unwaveringly admit their loyalty to countryman and producer Miguel Tereso of Demigod Recordings. “Miguel is fantastic,” enthuses the band’s primary composer. “He comes from a brutal death metal background. I thought if this guy can pull off a punchy, modern, but still authentic production with a slam / death metal band, I wonder what he can do with a band like GAEREA. He has a vision for a sound, and that is what I really like. He is not a black metal fan, but it’s this very external set of ears and eyes from a guy who really knows his craft, and he brings all of that to our sound.” The fruits of this union are quite evident, as the turbulent moods of the title track are so wonderfully tossed between tension-building moments, and the explosive payoffs which set GAEREA apart from so many who try but come up short. 

Tormented leads and building riffs sit atop some seriously explosive drumming, waxing and waning, on “Arson,” a tempest of moods and one of the album’s centrepieces. Emotion, at times sounding triumphant in brilliantly wrought guitar leads, is skewered by vocals that bustle with shattering despair. The dichotomy is magnificent to behold. GAEREA’s composer makes no mistake. “I want to hear the throat on the album, and if we are a vocals-driven band, I don’t want to over-process them during the recording. Striking that balance is one of the beauties for me in this record.”

In a world that increasingly elevates the shallow and the narcissistic, GAEREA pursues an artistic struggle of inward isolation, honest self-examination, and a dogged refusal to bow to the void that awaits. Thus, the persistence of their shadowed visages, draped in the masks which codify their anonymity while also creating a reliable extreme metal brand that fans can appreciate, especially in the live setting. “GAEREA are truly ourselves when we put these masks on, and we transcend into something different, and primitive,” he asserts. “It still makes total sense, and this band would not be a band anymore if we ever dropped the masks.”

As GAEREA prepares the release of Mirage, the world has resumed functioning, and as it lurches onward into its bleak future, one could stipulate that the pressure may be on to continue its rise amid the clamor of this renewal of activity. Does this challenge intimidate GAEREA? “We want to do better, but I don’t feel any pressure because we are in very good hands with the people we work with. We are building a strong team that really cares for us, stage-wise, promotional-wise, website and sales-wise. We are building a very structured confident teams that aims for the same goals we do. What I truly care about is continuing our ever-growing concept of the band GAEREA, and not becoming sterile, and I would not want people to be unaffected by our music. In the end we’re trying to express something within ourselves, and I don’t want it to be too complicated.”

The beauty of GAEREA lies in the directness and simplicity found within their florid tapestry of extremity and aggression. Whether it is in the less-polished aural dynamite of their self-titled EP, or in the lustrous textures of Mirage, GAEREA is building a mighty edifice of underground metal. With talons dipped in the inky blood of black metal and scraped across the flesh of human suffering, GAEREA is leading a charge into the future of darkness, and all those who find beauty and power in the dark side of existence would do well to take heed. 

WE ARE GAEREA.

Cathartic black metal outfit GAEREA are now releasing a brand new video for the track ‘Laude’, which is taken from the band’s freshly released album ‘Mirage’. The new offering celebrates GAEREA‘s upcoming tour dates with label mates GAAHLS WYRD and SAOR which will kick off later this week. A full list of confirmed dates can be found below.

GAEREA comment on the video: “Today we shine light upon LAUDE, the last single of the Mirage Record. An ode to this core’s unity and a whisper in the High Lands for what is about to unfold in the Vortex Society. A song about Sacrifice, Despair and Agony. A song about us: GAEREA. And as we once wrote: “(…) if the shores were not ravaged by human greed and ignorance, Resilience would draw a wall of adventures ingrained in our cells”

The album can still be found in various formats HERE and streamed on all digital platforms HERE.

GAEREA 
+Gaahls Wyrd +Saor +Winterfylleth*
30 Sep 22 Haarlem (NL) Patronaat
01 Oct 22 Arlon (BE) Léntrepot
02 Oct 22 Cologne (DE) Club Volta
03 Oct 22 Berlin (DE) Holle 44
05 Oct 22 Poznan (PL) U Bazyla
06 Oct 22 Krakow (PL) Hype Park
07 Oct 22 Prague (CZ) Futurum
08 Oct 22 Vienna (AT) Vienna Metal Meeting
09 Oct 22 Budapest (HU) Instant
11 Oct 22 Milan (IT) Slaughter Club
12 Oct 22 Martigny (CH) Les Caves Du Manoir
13 Oct 22 Lyon (FR) CCO Villeurbanne
14 Oct 22 Barcelona (ES) Boveda
15 Oct 22 Madrid (ES) Story Live
16 Oct 22 Toulouse (FR) Le Rex
17 Oct 22 Paris (FR) Petit Bain
19 Oct 22 London (UK) The Garage
20 Oct 22 Antwerp (BE) Zappa*
21 Oct 22 Nijmegen (NL) Soulcrusher 2022*
22 Oct 22 Essen (DE) Turock*
24 Oct 22 Munich (DE) Backstage Halle*
25 Oct 22 Frankfurt (DE) Das Bett*
26 Oct 22 Leipzig (DE) Hellraiser*
27 Oct 22 Hamburg (DE) Logo*
28 Oct 22 Copenhagen (DK) Vega*
29 Oct 22 Gothenburg (SE) Pustervik*
30 Oct 22 Stockholm (SE) Slaktkyrkan*
*No SAOR

GAEREA 2023
31 Jan 23 Riga (LV) Vagonu Hall
01 Feb 23 Tallin (EE) Sveta Baar
02 Feb 23 Helsinki (FI) On the Rocks
07 Apr 23 Oslo (NO) Inferno Festival 2023

The cover artwork for ‘Mirage’ was created by the SAROS Collective.

Track-list
1. Memoir (8:17)
2. Salve (5:26) [WATCH]
3. Deluge (6:31)
4. Arson (8:54)
5. Ebb (5:32)
6. Mirage (6:38) [WATCH]
7. Mantle (5:17) [WATCH]
8. Laude (6:26) [WATCH]
9. Dormant (Bonus track) (7:46)
Total: 1:00:47