Gaerea bring Loss to the UK with Conjurer in support. What follows is an evening of extreme emotion.

All live pictures courtesy of Andy Pountney (Instragram) from Manchester Club Academy, 11/9/2026.

A REFURBED SLAY

Slay feels different now. It’s my first time into the newly renovated venue with all the walls taken down. Suddenly, there is air everywhere. More space, more room around the merch stalls and a bar on each side. I arrived early enough to have a look around and of course I went to see the merch too. Gaerea’s stall immediately catches eye. Curated with Loss sitting there together with the T shirts and that huge completely black Gaerea logo patch that I couldn’t stop looking at (of course I bought it).

CONJURER

With only two bands on the bill, Conjurer open. The English sludge/doom/post/death metal band came on with a set taking in eight songs from Mire and Unself. It didn’t take long for the room to warm up. The crowd was mixed in age and everyone seemed to know the songs. Hadal in particular had the whole room singing and the chorus was bouncing against the walls of the new open space.

There was a small technical problem with the guitars at the beginning but after that everything went smoothly and tightly. I was standing on the left side of the stage and from there I particularly notice Noah See behind the drums. The voices were so perfectly joined together that at times they seemed to come from the same monstrous mouth.

GAEREA

Once Conjurer left the stage there was a movement of people and equipment preparing everything for Gaerea. I had already seen them at SWG3 opening for Orbit Culture but that stage was much bigger and I was not close enough to completely absorb what they were doing. Slay is much more contained and for Gaerea this worked beautifully, almost intimate.

A small vertical extension is added to the front of the stage giving Alpha the space for his floating dance and suddenly the whole performance seems to have another dimension. I immediately noticed the lighting too. The first colours were warm reds, almost like a sunset, strong enough from where I was standing on the side to almost dazzle the crowd. I couldn’t stop thinking about the colours of Loss (our review here) and when they opened with Luminary I became convinced that this wasn’t casual at all. The crowd was immediately caught by the extraordinary stage presence of the band and every chorus pulls everybody further in.

AN ETHEREAL CONNECTION

Alpha moves across that small extension like something suspended rather than walking on a stage while Delta, on the left, seems to fluctuate with her guitar. Her movements almost mirrored the ethereal connection between the lights and the rest of the band. Nothing felt separated. The musicians, the movement and the colours were all part of the same thing.

Uncontrolled Hellbound followed and then more songs from Loss, including Cyclone and Nomad. Slowly I realise that the gig is divided into three different parts and the lights were giving away what was coming next. Then the colours change. The warm reds disappeared and light blue mixed with purple began to fill the stage. I knew immediately. Coma. And it was. 

HEIGHTENED EMOTION

Again, the colours seemed to come straight from the album world and the whole room changes with them. Gaerea open this second part with the immense Guilted Flower. The further the set went, the more emotional everything becomes. Not only the crowd. There was something visibly emotional coming from the band too.

At one point, Alpha asks us to turn on the torches on our phones and suddenly Slay became this watery ethereal space full of little lights. We were completely embraced by it. There was something almost fragile about the moment despite the heaviness of the music and the voices. Each lyric felt like a dagger inflicted with a gentle touch. The final song was Stardust, sweet and sour at the same time, a strange, beautiful way of closing such an intense night.

I left Slay with a blown kiss and a pick from Delta in my hands, carrying both bands’ setlists with me. Some gigs stay in your head because of the music. This one stayed in my eyes too.

Gaerea: Website

Conjurer: Website

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