Black Metal History Month - GAEREA :"Loss"

Portugal's GAEREA have been fairly consistent in their previous sonic assaults despite confusing pedestrians with their Sleep Token garb. This album is less black metal than the first two, as things slow into epic, sung choruses with more anthemic ambition. Even with these changes, it's hard to complain about them, as what they have captured here is very well done and sounds great. "Submerged" finds them leaning back into some of the more atmospheric dynamics to contrast the more hammering sections. It evolves into one of the more deliberate sections yet. 

"Hellbound" is a more overt pounding with the melodic elements in the periphery. By the time we get to "UNCONTROLLED," there is some tremolo-picked guitar that flirts with their more black-metal-leaning sound, but the blunt-force Behemoth-style bludgeoning begins to fidns the songs running together a bit when we get into the meat of the album. It is the vocal hook in "Phoenix" that makes me pay more attention. "Cyclone" finds both the atmosphere and melody being dialed up. When the more forceful vocals come in, they are on the more mainstream side of metal, but overall, the song works. 

This more mainstream approach to modern metal haunts the last two songs. "Nomad' carrying a more pummelling attack. The hook of the chorus does not snag me as strongly as moments earlier in the album. Technicallyu the last song is a modern metal power ballad, though more progressive in feel than say Sleep Token. Well produced and sounds good, it's a little blander than average, so I will give it an 8.5. This is consistent with their previous albums. 

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LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE : 'How to Shroud Yourself with Night"

 

The guitarist and founder Oliver Schimd is the only original member. This is also Julian Larre's second outing with the band since his debut in 2019 with them.  Normally these things would make me skeptical, but here it seems to have freshened things up in the right direction. Things are not far from the Paradise Lost or Moonspell zip code. The song writing ranges from death n roll to doom all flavored with the goth trappings this band is known for. There is sometimes a more nu-metal swagger to some of the more syncopated grooves. I guess that has always been a thing for these guys since their inception, it just has gone through different cycles depending on how doom they were feeling.  

"Nebula" is an interesting blend of varied styles of heavy from the more goth like sound to a more mainstream almost melodic metal core type sound. The chorus soars in that direction. At times this makes me think of H.I.M . Certainly, Ville is more of an influence on Larre than Andrew Eldritch. Since Vallo is not making this kind of music anymore, there is a void to be filled, that I do not mind. Things get darker on "the Certain of White Silence". It is a better direction than the H.I.M core stuff. Which still works for what it is, I just prefer what they do sonically on the more atmospheric portions of the song, though when thing speed up on the chorus is feel awkward, like black metal being inserted where it does not belong. The almost rapped anguished vocals on the verse, work better than expected. It is an example of the lurking nu-metal influence. 

The chorus of "Unseen" works better than the chorus of the previous song. I am no crazy about the harsher vocals on this one, as they remind me of Lamb of God.  "The Vastness of Infinity is not breaking any new ground and works of the goth metal of the 90s meets the Myspace Metal of today. This combination of styles actually works well on "To Disappear In You".  The growled chorus works for what this is but doesn't blow me away either as the verses are cool as fuck. There are a few goth moments that play it fairly safe like " An Invisible Beginning". It works as a song, but metal is more about taking risks. There is more of gamble on the last song, which finds them continuing to blend a more growled modern metal sound with 90s goth well. Overall, I think this album shows growth and peaks my interest in a band I was otherwise lukewarm to when they came out, which speaks volumes in both cases since, my tastes fall in the lines of what their target audience would be, I will give this a 9.  

Anaal Nathrakh:"Desideratum"

Right from the onset of band's 8th slab you can hear the difference , as this one carries a much cleaner sound.The Brits have stepped up their game in terms of quality, though the almost djent like elements of the opening piece might puzzle some hard core black metal fans who prefer the band's earlier. But in terms of growth where would they been if they just listened to fan who wanted them to remake "the Codex Necro" again and again.

"Unleash'' is the aftershock of the opener. Blending black metal chaos with Emperor like clean singing. At some points this combination almost comes across more like Strapping Young Lad, as there are more commercial and industrial elements, that could push these guys through into more mainstream metal audiences. Their is almost a Slipknot feel to "Monstrum in Animo". The more sweeping black metal passage sorts this out, but the hammer of the  double bass and how tightly it's dialed in does create a more mall mall sound. However if this is mall metal it's being done right.

" The One Thing Needful" plunges you into a whirlwind of spastic blackened metal. They have long abandoned worrying about if they are black metal enough or not, the Emperor worship is the only that really burns that dark flame, as we have breakdown and epic guitar runs galore coming in from every angle. A "beautiful People" like industrial pound opens up "A Firm Foundation of Unyielding Despair", but aside from the break of mega phone spoken vocals it begun to sound like the song before it.And thus begins the ritualistic flogging of the dead horse. The title track has some variance in the riff , but it comes at you foaming at the mouth in an all too familiar fashion. The song builds to a warp speed momentum and loses all sense of dynamics as it hurtles by you faster than you are able to take it what is going on, and perhaps the reason for this is that there is not much in terms of originality, this could be one of a thousand bands. The songs reflect this in the fact that they are all roughly under the four minute mark.

We stay on similar grounds for "Idol". The pacing is almost identical to other songs, and the hooks on the clean vocals are beginning to run together as well. There is more of a Motorhead barrelling to "Of Maggots and Humanity" this is interspersed with the chaos of the other songs. The Slipknot feeling begins to slip up on me again. There are some pretty catchy riffs on this one, but Slipknot has some of those as well. The "Joystream" blast off maybe even faster than some of the other songs on here, though the melody in the pound of the verse is more solid than some of the other songs, the almost Chino like screams are a little bit of a turn off.

"Rage and Red" finds us back to any other song on here. The squeals around the edges , the insane drums that would be more impressive if I heard them carry a more memorable groove sometime. They consistently throw the kitchen sink at you here and some people might be into that sort of thing, while I prefer songs . This point in the album it is clearly masturbatory The final song is slightly more  black metal and throws a little less at you like the auditory cluster fuck that makes up the bulk of the album.

Even for all of it's flaws in the song writing department, the execution and big sound that they have put together can not be denied, so this album gets an 8, even though I personally don't see myself listening to this on a regular basis, though it has been on the bulk of the afternoon, while I have been working on this so , who knows, brace yourself if you are a long time fan as it's a step closer to the mainstream, but on their own terms.