Portugal’s Gojira – I mean Gaerea – have released their second album “Limbo”; their first on Season of Mist. First things first, I love the artwork. Second things second, the bass player is great. He channels his inner Skoll at times, which I enjoyed a lot. Third things third (yes, I’m going to milk this), the vocals are dynamic. There’s Batushka style chanting, while in other places there’s a definite Behemoth vibe to the vocals; the start of “Null” is a nice example of the latter. Fourth things fourth (Fuck it! We’ve come this far, let’s beat this joke to death), the guitar tone is great, and the duelling guitars do some really interesting melody and harmony parts. Now, I didn’t love every riff on “Limbo”, but most of them are excellent.
A criticism I have is that the long songs seem long. That is, they flounder. I don’t mind long songs, but when you look to see how much of the song is left, something’s wrong. To me, it seemed like there was nothing driving the song forward toward its conclusion. In this sense, there’s a bit of Anorexia Nervosa about Gaerea; I had the same issue with some of their music. That said, the slow build-up in the outro of the final song, “Mare”, made my lady-parts tingle.
Rating – 4 / 5
The Metal Wanderlust 