Gaerea - Islington Assembly Hall, support by Conjurer. 18\09\26
With the band rounding out their UK tour to promote their fifth and perhaps most diverse album, "Loss," the mixed crowd is telling of just how far Gaerea have evolved, from their black metal origins to a wider appeal incorporating clean, atmospheric vocals and melodies, while still giving long-time fans their fill of blast beats and heavy vocals.
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Photos by Charlotte Bates @turbulent_music
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If today was your first introduction to Gaerea, you might be confused by the mixed audience in attendance at Islington Assembly, with pockets of fans branching from each metal subgenre. Despite their black metal roots, it feels like those days may soon be in the rearview mirror: tracks from "Unsettling Whispers" and "Limbo" were nowhere to be seen tonight, and it's hard to imagine them fitting comfortably into a set as modern as the one we got.
Conjurer
We start tonight with a small eruption from the crowd as tour support Conjurer hit the stage, delivering a dark, atmospheric performance to warm things up. Led by singer Dani Nightingale, the band put on an impressive show, Nightingale stands front of stage, singing at the top of their lungs without a microphone, still able to project the lyrics to ‘’Hollow’’ to everyone in the room.
It's understandable why Conjurer are part of this tour: their performance is one that can only be fully appreciated live. It leaves me feeling the band would be even better suited touring with the likes of Blood Incantation, Converge and Conan. The crowd clearly gets into it regardless, bobbing their heads in time to the slow, sludge-filled riffs on offer.
The energy really spikes during the band's last song, "Hadal," when bass guitarist Chris Marshall jumps into the crowd, commanding a circle pit around him as he plays, leaving everyone ready for what comes next.
Gaerea
The lights turn dark red and the room starts to rumble as the band, lit up like silhouetted figures, slowly make their way onstage, accompanied by the most flamboyant figure of them all, lead singer Alpha, commanding the crowd like a masked puppeteer as they open with "Luminary," the opening track from their latest album, "Loss."
Despite the high energy in the room, "Loss" the album this tour is built around appears to have left certain fans with mixed feelings, as we hear them heckle the band for older songs. It's only by track three that they're silenced, as the room erupts when Alpha calls for a wall of death during "Hellbound," one of the more popular cuts from the new record.
From here the energy stays high: arms raised, the audience sways along to "Cyclone" before easing into a slower, more beautiful stretch with "LBRNTH," where the crowd takes over as backing vocalists to guitarist Delta's already angelic vocals. A loud cheer greets "Nomad," which sees our masked pied piper emerge from the shadows to lead the crowd once more in chants passing from one side of the room to the other.
"15-year-old me always dreamed of playing London, and here we are - unbelievable. One of the best fucking crowds I've seen. Thank you, London." - Alpha
Before long, the heckles for older tracks are answered: the band tears into "World Ablaze" from 2024's "Coma," before returning to "Loss" for tracks seven and eight, "Phoenix" and "Submerge."As beautiful as the new album is, it's easy to understand why fans have felt mixed about it, the whiplash between slower, melodic passages and teeth-rattling drums and shredding guitars is jarring live. That contrast only sharpens as the band dips back into their discography toward the end of the thirteen-song set: "Hope Shatters" sends the crowd into a frenzy, blast beats and circle pits taking over the floor, before "Laude" leads into "Wilted Flower" ahead of the encore.
To close the night, the band plays the ninth and final track from "Loss" the near-eight-minute ballad "Stardust," which captivates the room with heart-gripping melodies and headbanging riffs, sending the crowd home happy, if perhaps still a little unsatisfied for those craving more of the old material.
As performances go, Gaerea were solid from start to finish, a powerhouse of musicians backing their mystical pied piper frontman, whose raw, guttural screams and emotional vocals anchor the whole show. That same strength makes it genuinely surprising the band aren't yet selling out bigger venues; on record, "Loss" holds its own against the likes of Architects, Parkway Drive, and to a lesser extent, Bring Me the Horizon.
If Gaerea keeps pushing toward this kind of widespread appeal, it's only a matter of time before they land on bigger stages and pull in new fans. As with all change, though, that comes with the risk of alienating the ones who got them here.
