Gaerea
THE ORPHEUM | TAMPA, FL | 10.15.2023
Questions from the Void
Are you alive?
Kind of a loaded question for a singer to ask a crowd. The typical response followed, cheers and fists. The question hit me different. Am I? What does it mean to be alive? How can I quantify my existence? Does it matter? Why are these people cheering? As I come back to reality halfway through the song I realize that is what I crave from Black Metal — the space to dream.
Gaerea take stage as a unified front. Forms once human screaming from beyond. Caught in the veil between worlds. Masked and marked with a symbol that takes on a higher meaning from the music it absorbs.
Through the removal of humanity and individuality, sound becomes their tether to reality. Kind of like being out in the ocean at night beyond the sight of land. Nothing familiar on the horizon for your eyes to lock on. Nothing everywhere all around you, except the sounds. There’s something equally unsettling and peaceful about the experience.
Am I alive? At the time of writing this, yes. I’m grateful part of my life was spent in the presence of Gaerea.
