Gaerea‘s new record Mirage lyrically explores stories about regular people and the difficulties of modern life, as black metal is increasingly wont to do in modern times. In an interview with Metal Injection, a member of Gaerea discusses how black metal has moved away from leaning into anti-Christian lyrics and into the realm of dealing with day-to-day human life and its struggles. However, they note that Gaerea still takes musical influence from the black metal bands of yesteryear. Just not so much the topics.

“[Black metal is] a reflection of today’s society, where I think Christianity or being against it or all of these things that were very crucial in the ’90s are not that dictating anymore,” they said. “I think now we’re in this society where one of the most important things is to reflect on how you feel as a human being in today’s world. So I guess, most of these bands like us, we reflect on ourselves. We talk about human beings and depression or suicide, or utmost happiness, or feelings of liberation even if it’s just very scarce.

“I’m happy with how black metal is still very liberating and it has had that freedom that I spoke about [at the start of the interview], but in a more modern way in terms of concept. Again, some of my favorite bands would be classics from the ’90s or even the beginning of the 2000s, and we [Gaerea] look upon them as sources of inspiration and the seriousness they have toward their art. It’s just something that we really respect and try to be like them at some point.”

Check out the full interview below and definitely give Gaerea‘s new record Mirage a spin here.

You can also check out Gaerea‘s recent music video for the song “Laude” below.