Portuguese extreme metal force GAEREA are finally making their way to Australia for the very first time this July, bringing the Loss Australian Tour to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, presented by Soundworks Direct Touring.
For a band that has built its reputation on intensity, atmosphere, anonymity and emotionally consuming live performances, this first Australian run has been a long time coming. Speaking with Crannk ahead of the tour, vocalist Alpha made it clear that Australia has been on the band’s radar for years, but the timing had to be right.
“We always wanted to go to Australia,” Alpha says. “Finally, the right alignment of planets happened for us to be able to do this.”
That sense of timing came up a lot during our chat. GAEREA have never been a band to rush into something just because it sounds good on paper. As Alpha explains, Australia had been sitting on the back burner since the early days, with promoters showing interest for years, but for a band travelling from Portugal to the other side of the world, the reality has to make sense.
“Since the very early beginnings of the band, we started to get some Australian promoters that always wanted us to go over there,” Alpha says. “At some point, we were just like, all right, we’re just going to go when shit’s real serious.”
Now, with GAEREA standing in the Loss era and operating at a new level of confidence and reach, that moment has arrived.
“I think this is the right time, where we can do a very special evening every night, covering a bit of everything we ever done,” Alpha says. “It’s a new part of the world for me as well, also for everyone in the band. We always get super excited when we go somewhere for the first time.”
For Australian fans, that first time is going to mean a lot. GAEREA are one of those bands where the records are only one part of the experience. The visual world, the physicality, the atmosphere and the emotional violence of the performance all collide into something much bigger than a standard metal show. For many fans here, the band has existed through albums, videos and word of mouth. Now the full force finally lands in the room.
Alpha knows that first impact will carry weight.
“It’s going to be definitely special,” he says. “It’s one of those, like, what took you so long kind of things.”
He compares the feeling to GAEREA’s first run in the United States in 2023, where fans had clearly been waiting years for the band to arrive. Australia, he feels, will have a similar energy.
“I think it’s going to have that vibe of special connection with all the people that have been following us since the beginning,” Alpha says. “I know we do have quite a few fans since Limbo and Unsettling Whispers, so from ten years ago. But it’s also going to be a ride where we show, okay, this is who we are also now.”
And who GAEREA are now is a band standing in the shadow and fire of Loss, their latest album and one of the boldest creative statements in their catalogue.
For Alpha, the album is not about repeating a formula. It is about refusing the cage completely.
“All the albums have been quite different, because I only make music when I feel like something different is about to happen,” he says. “After ten years, we realised that we don’t want to just do what people expect. Let’s just do what we really want to do right now.”
That honesty sits at the core of Loss. The record pushes the GAEREA sound wider, bringing in new textures, more space, different vocal colours, more melodic movement and structures that stretch beyond what some listeners may have expected from the band. But for Alpha, that was the point.
“We don’t have to call it anything before we actually do the record,” he says. “We don’t have to put it in any box. There’s nothing to prove here.”
Alpha also points to the current lineup and the trust within the band as a key reason Loss was able to become what it is.
“We felt like this was the most important lineup we’ve ever had,” he says. “We felt like there’s this honesty, this openness for this more share of thoughts and emotions and maybe some traumas in our lives, which is very new for me.”
That openness allowed the band to explore ideas they had not touched in the same way before. Alpha speaks about wanting to learn how to sing, wanting to explore different song structures, and wanting to make a record that reflected exactly who GAEREA are today rather than who people expected them to remain.
“It feels very refreshing to just do whatever,” he says. “If we want to go to a more pop structural approach to the songs, something we never did, I was always a bit curious how we could sound like that. We don’t want to keep doing the same record. We wanted the most honest record we could to who we are today. And this is exactly what Loss is.”
Of course, that kind of growth is always going to split opinion. Extreme music fans can be protective of the version of a band they first connected with, and Loss is a record that challenges expectations. Alpha is completely at peace with that.
“It’s a bold move to do something that is so far off what people perceive that we would always do,” he says. “People understand it. Of course, some people might not like it. It’s fine. There’s still the other records that they can listen to.”
One of the most powerful moments on Loss is “Phoenix”, a track that carries the weight of survival, damage and rebirth. For a band so often tied to darkness, anguish and emotional collapse, “Phoenix” feels like a statement that GAEREA are still here, still burning, and still in control of their own fate.
Alpha does not soften the reality behind that feeling. GAEREA have been through years of sacrifice, pressure, instability and the kind of industry battles that can break bands apart. At times, he admits, the weight of it all nearly became too much.
“We’ve been through a lot of shit,” he says. “There were a lot of moments where I was thinking, this is consuming me too much.”
But rather than letting outside forces decide the band’s ending, “Phoenix” became a declaration of ownership.
“This song, for me, is a song that says, okay, I’m the one that will call the shot if we decide to kill the band, not anybody else,” Alpha says. “As far as I can see, we’re here to stay.”
That line sums up where GAEREA seem to be in 2026. Not just surviving, but renewed. Not just carrying the weight of Loss, but turning it into movement. Alpha speaks about finally having the right crew, the right people around the band, and the right feeling inside GAEREA after a decade of pushing forward.
“It feels like restarting the band,” he says. “There’s this freshness to doing things.”
That energy is now coming to Australia. Alpha says the live shows are more intense than anything GAEREA have done before, partly because of the emotional weight of the new album and partly because the new songs bring a heavier, sometimes more death metal driven force to the stage.
“These days, the live shows have been way more intense than anything we’ve ever done,” he says. “Probably because of the emotional intensity of the new album. But it’s also fucking heavy with the new songs.”
And as Alpha put it perfectly, what better place than Australia to try some death metal riffs?
GAEREA’s Loss Australian Tour hits Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney this July, presented by Soundworks Direct Touring.
For longtime fans, this is the moment they have been waiting for. For newer fans who found the band through Loss, this is the chance to step fully into the world GAEREA have built. And for the band themselves, it is another first in a career that still feels like it is gathering force.
GAEREA are here to stay. Australia finally gets to witness it.
GAEREA with guests Ironstone performing at:
July 7th – Perth, Amplifier Bar w/ Patient Sixty-Seven & Allocer*
July 9th – Adelaide, Lion Arts Factory w/ Storm The Crown
July 10th – Melbourne, Max Watts w/ Ghostseeker
July 11th – Brisbane, Crowbar w/ The Matador
July 12th – Sydney, Crowbar w/ Lotus Born
*Ironstone not performing Perth
TICKETS ON SALE NOW at:
PERTH, MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, BRISBANE – www.oztix.com.au
ADELAIDE – www.moshtix.com.au
