Two tracks. Just over ten minutes. A mere taste of what’s to come. That’s all it takes for Gaerea to remind the entire Black Metal world that they don’t just make music — they conjure despair. And Loss, even in this embryonic form, feels like standing at the edge of an abyss that’s staring right the fuck back.I
’ll be honest — when I first saw that Gaerea had dropped a two-track pre-order teaser for an album not even out until March 2026, I thought, “Right, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that?” But then I pressed play, and all rational thought went out the window. Because this… this isn’t just a preview. This is a fucking statement.
From the first second, you’re thrown headfirst into that familiar Gaerea maelstrom — the suffocating atmosphere, the swirling walls of tremolo fury, the sense that something vast and unknowable is dragging you under. It’s not chaos for chaos’s sake; it’s tightly wound misery given shape and teeth. Their brand of Black Metal doesn’t simply play loud — it conquers.
Both tracks sound absolutely colossal. The guitars roar with volcanic force, the drums pound like the pulse of an anxious god, and the bass feels like tectonic plates grinding beneath your feet. The production is immaculate without losing the raw edge that makes Gaerea so goddamn vital. Everything is clear, everything hits hard, and everything bleeds emotion.
And that voice — that tortured, howling, pain-soaked thing that passes for vocals — it’s pure Gaerea. It’s the sound of grief, rage, and existential dread compressed into human form. You can hear the ache in every syllable, the unrelenting pressure of existence clawing its way out of the lungs of someone who’s already halfway to oblivion.
What’s most impressive is how much emotional scope these two tracks cover. In ten minutes, Gaerea take you from white-hot fury to bottomless sorrow, from roaring blast-beat storms to moments of almost divine stillness. It’s like being torn apart by grief and reborn through fire, only to realise you’re still trapped inside the same endless night.If these two songs are anything to go by, Loss is going to be something special. Something ruinous. Something that reminds us that black metal can still sound human — not in spite of its darkness, but because of it.
The pre-order for Loss is available here.
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: Ten minutes. Two tracks. Infinite devastation. Gaerea prove once again that they don’t just make Black Metal — they weaponise emotion. If this is just a preview, the full album might just level us all.
