ÉCAILLES DE LUNE

Alcest's new album sounds different than the previous album. It almost seems to me that Neige has so many ideas that he could create 5 albums a year. So what is new on this album? Neige progressed on the dreamy way of music but blends more Black Metal in the music this time. Therefore, you should be tolerant when it comes to Black Metal vocals. In almost every secound song, there is the very harsh way of singing. Not the Opeth style and also not the Agalloch, not even the Darkthrone style. So you should get used to it or you miss an outstanding album. The album starts with "Ecailles de lune". It is a mellow song with the typical high vocals by Neige. At the end of the songs the drumming gets faster, sounding like the Black Metal style. All in all, this song is such a great opener for this album. The next song "Ecailles de lune Part2" follows this scheme, adding the Black Metal vocals. "Percees de Lumiere" is the outstanding track on this album. I knew that song from the Split Ep with Les Discrets. It has the best mix of Black Metal and the dreamy shoegaze, starting with a melodic Metal part and then going over in a mellow part with high vocals. Great track. "Abysses" is only an interlude track, nothing special. You can only hear some kind of wind. Not my cup of tea. "Solar song" reminds me a bit of a Smashing Pumpkins' track. Starting with some kind of onomatopoei style of singing and then accompanied by nice guitar leads. I had to get used to it because it sounds very different to the other songs but then I started to like it though. The last song "Sur l' Ocean Couleur de Fer" has a nice intro with a guitar picking riff. It feels like being near the ocean. Definitely a riff you have to listen to. The song flows along till a guitar strumming part is added with a nice lead playing along. Maybe the most beautiful part of the album. Maybe even the most beautfil part Neige has written so far, which means a lot by this artist.

This is an album with almost no weak points. Ok, "Abysses" is kind of useless but such an ambient track is not that a disaster. I almost can't believe that Neige wrote this album in about 1 year, whereas it took him several years to create "Souveniers d'un autre mond". The drumming, by the way, it better than on the previous album because a drummer played the parts. On "Souveniers" Neige played them by himself which sounded a bit amateurish. You should check this album when you liked Neige's previous works but also when you look for music you can dream to. But be warned of the vocals, which can prevent you from this music.

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