Coma

With their fourth album, masked black-metal squad Gaerea have created their most personal and intimate album yet. On Coma, the Portuguese musicians—who prefer anonymity, even though their identities are widely known—have crafted a concept album about a mysterious aspect of the subconscious. “All of these tracks could be memories, thoughts or even ramblings that go on inside the mind of someone who is trapped in the state of coma,” Gaerea’s vocalist and lyricist tells Apple Music. “Everything is happening in the mind of someone who is not exactly alive or dead.” Stylistically, the band takes several leaps outside of the established black-metal realm with clean vocals and more emotive lyrics. “I don’t think this is a black-metal album at all,” he says. “We wanted to explore new ground, other song structures, other ways of singing, other ways of playing drums. We don’t want to stagnate. We’re trying to evolve into something else. But we also don’t feel like we belong to the genre we’ve always fit into. Or at least not completely anymore.” It’s not just the music that’s different. For a band that’s always dug deep, lyrically speaking, Coma goes even further beneath the surface. “I won’t say it’s a more mature album, like all the bands ramble about,” he says. “We just wanted to show a bit more of ourselves as human beings. I think it’s a way more emotional record in that sense.” Below, he comments on each track. “The Poet’s Ballet” “With [Gaerea’s 2022 album] Mirage, I was always talking about how selfish the creation process is, so I decided to write a song exclusively about that. ‘The Poet’s Ballet’ is that song. The creation process is beautiful, unique, cathartic and dramatic for me personally, but also selfish because you can never reproduce the same thing ever again. It’s also selfish because when people hear your song, hopefully they will relate to it. But how they do that is always based on their own feelings and experiences. And then it’s not yours anymore—it