ALCEST

Not only do I see these gorgeous visions, I feel indescribable emotions even more. A lot of wistfulness is what I hear. The melodies sound like smiling while crying. Pain, but beautiful pain. Really beautiful. Listening to this album specifically opened my eyes as a prog fanatic on the fact that seriously, you don't have to play really technically to achieve a diverse sound. Layering is a big part of this record and the way Alcest does it is a total success, as always. The soundscapes that this album holds are difficult to describe with words. The listening experience is always a feeling, a strong link of emotions.

What comes to analysing the music itself, this record beholds a concise collection of guitarwork that consists of impeccable chord progressions and riffs that play a huge part in creating the atmosphere on this album. Not only do we have heavenly, varying melodies made by multiple layered guitar tracks on songs, we also have rhythm sections that are really important in creating the intensity of the tracks. Compact double bass parts and astonishing work with the cymbals, really highlighting the metal aspect of the record.

Then there's the vocals?oh wow. Breathtaking. It's truly incredible how Neige is able to produce a perfect blend between raw, heart wrenching screams, transferring them to emotional and angelic clean vocals that bring tears in your eyes. The mixing is clear but not too modern sounding at all, considering that we're talking about an album that is partially black metal.

Speaking of which, I never thought I'd stumble across a band that mixes two really different genres so flourishingly. The best way to describe it is pure. Just like their sound and view on making music, it's not pretentious or fake, it's all made with emotion and feel, the band pouring their souls into their records with Kodama being one of the prime examples. It's the way everything is tied together so well and the 42 minutes of content this record has beneath it feels like the perfect amount. Nothing feels out of place and there's just the right amount of everything. Nothing is missing, nothing feels excessive. The balance is ideal and each song progresses just right. Not a single song is too long or too short. What this album really does is leave you wanting more. Alcest has a sound like no other, a truly irreplaceable one.

Best track: Kodama

Rating: 10/10

1. "Komorebi" (6:40) opens with every bit of the anthemic power that we've come to expect from Neige's music over the last 15 years, but, unfortunately, this one ends up lacking the bite and beauty of Stéphane's early stuff. The guitar-chord-mirroring vocals render it a bit too much into the realm of Devy Townsend music and the drumming gets a bit too active, domineering, and demanding (mixed too far forward) during the mid-section. (8.6667/10)

2. "L'Envol" (8:02) check out the beautiful animated art that accompany this song on YouTube. Musically it's rather bland and same-same Alcest. I really like the occasional screams and squeals coming from the guitar, but Stéphane's performance with his human voice is just too mundane and unengaging. I do, however, like the use of acoustic guitars without all of the screaming electric guitar chord strumming. I also like Jean Deflandre's more-subdued, "accompanying" drums as opposed to his torrential barrages of artillery fire. (13/15)

3. "Améthyste" (8:31) great drumming. Pitchy vocals (the humane ones). The mix in the sixth minute is perfect--just like the early Alcest albums. (17.5/20)

4. "Flamme Jumelle" (5:23) perhaps the best realized song on the album due to a great sonic palette and some fine engineering. Sounds a bit like OCEANSIZE's "New Pin" (which is good!). The music is interpreted by a pair of twin sprites in a beautifully-choreographed dance video on YouTube. (8.875/10)

5. "Réminiscence" (2:51) piano! (heavily-treated, of course). With Stéphane's tender, beautiful vocal this makes for a moving listening experience despite its brevity. (9/10)

6. "L'Enfant de la Lune" (7:28) with this pretty female-narrated intro I was really hopeful but then the guitars and drums burst into a fairly straightforward pattern with Neige singing "normally" in his mid-range within. The drumming is actually a bit annoying--until the instrumental passage and chorus, but then Jean falls back into his Animal-like barrage. They're definitely much more interesting and less pugilistic in the instrumental passages--especially from 3:55 on. Otherwise, this is a pretty solid and engaging song. (13.5/15)

7. "L'Adieu" (4:52) plays out like a beautiful good-bye song. The heavily-treated slow-picked guitar arpeggi are awesome--very reminiscent of something from the past. (9/10)

Total time: 43:48

I have to admit that either this album just kept getting better the deeper I got into it or else I was (once again) falling under the numbing warmth of falling snow the more I remained immersed in Neige's world.

B/four stars; an excellent addition of artistic prog metal music for the prog lover's music collection.

After returning to my vinyl collection, I gave this one a listen in a tense post-rehearsal mahjong session with the rest of my band. Alcest have always been one of our biggest influences, even to the point of over-influence, but this seems to be the one of their classic albums that we're least keen on. I still like it though, even if it's nothing on the two that followed. More subdued and romantic, and honestly there are enough good melodies here to forgive the relative lack of dynamics.

8.4 (14th listen)

Part of my listening diary from my facebook music blog - www.facebook.com/TheExoskeletalJunction

Almost ten years have passed since I discovered Alcest, a band I loved since the very first minute, a band I've followed closely through those years. It was love at first sight. And now, I am here to celebrate the release of 'Spiritual Instinct', their sixth studio album which recently saw the light through Nuclear Blast.

Neige and Winterhalter have become a wonderful team, and though Alcest is basically Neige's child, he's found in Winterhalter his best partner. For this record they created six enigmatic tracks that sound just like Alcest, not another band, and that is something great, it is not easy to create a unique sound that can be recognized within some seconds. The total length of this work is 41 minutes.

It starts with 'Les Jardins de Minuit', a solid first track that shows that wonderful blend of black metal and post rock this project has. The power of their music is evident since the very first minute, fast drums, those vocals and cool changes all over the song. And although I like it, there might be a problem there: it doesn't really show anything new.

The start of 'Protection' reminds me a lot of 'La Ou Naissent les Couleurs Nouvelles', it is curious that it is also a track number two. The music develops dark atmospheres, rock meets shoegaze and metal, and what I always love about this band is that use of clean and growl vocals, Neige knows very well how to do that.

'Sapphire' is the shortest song here and to be honest, has a rhythm quite alike to what we've already experience on the album, anyway, the high quality is always present, I love the screams, the guitars and the sensation of being in the woods running and being one with the wildlife (it is my mind, I know). It is maybe a catchier song, so anyone that doesn't know Alcest might like it.

'L'ile des Morts' is, on the other hand, the longest composition here, a track that develops a diversity of nuances in both, the instrumental parts and the ones with vocals, in fact, I believe the instrumental passages here are the best from the whole record, exciting moments full of rage, hope, brightness and darkness. A clear example of how Alcest manage to create countless emotions.

'Le miroir' starts with heavy and dark bass and guitars but then it vanishes and a new brighter and charming sound appears. This kind of beautiful passages are also a signature sound of Alcest, one can close the eyes, feel that peace and enjoy life. Though I don't understand French (sorry), I let my mind and soul to just feel, and that sometimes is enough.

The final song is 'Spiritual Instinct' is a very nice track that sums up what the album is about. And I'll be honest, I enjoy the album, all the times I've listened to it I've liked it, however, I think the guys just felt comfortable to show more of the same and don't give memorable gems, maybe their goal is not to create catchy singles, but in difference with previous albums, here I could not find outstanding songs and though while listening to them my mind reacts saying 'it is Alcest', it does not says 'it is THIS Alcest song', maybe they are not meant to be remembered.

An average Alcest album and probably me least favorite so far. But you know, things change.

Since SOUVENIRS D'UN AUTRE MONDE is a Neige solo album in disguise, it is of no surprise that it sounds quite different than the albums such as "Écailles De Lune" that follow. While the band has been tagged as shoegaze, blackgaze, post-rock and experimental metal, this debut yields very little in the metal department and is in effect a post-rock album that happens to have a guitar chords that ruffle their feathers to look bigger than they actually are. Like most post-rock, SOUVENIRS relies on a hypnotic run of soft dreamy guitar arpeggios and riffs that ratchet up the tension and ultimately find some sort of crescendo. The overall mood of the album is dark, dripping in nostalgia, rueful regret and euphoric yearning for blissful peace.

It's hard for me to review this album because in all honesty because i find it utterly boring. While this debut has been lauded since ALCEST first hit the scene in the mid naughts, i have had a very difficult time understanding why this clicks with so many and yet leaves me as cold as a whale's ass in the Arctic Ocean. While the future albums are actually quite engaging, this one seems to juxtapose all the wrong elements together in all the wrong places, at least for my tastes. First of all, the vocals are the most annoying of all, sounding like some indie pop twee garage band from small town USA. Despite being tagged metal, there are no metal vocals whatsoever with completely clean vocals dominating the entire album's run.

Secondly, this album chugs along at a snail's pace and never really engages in any dramatic changes. This is a true zone out album if i've ever heard one. While i love post-rock, indie rock, indie pop, post-metal and all the genres this is purported to be, SOUVENIRS is simply mediocre all the way around. It is a lazy breezy type of album that just floats by on codeine with no dramatic passages really ever emerging from the nonchalant drifting through the proper post-rock expectations. Next complaint, the instrumental parts just don't work together for my liking. Neige attempts to deliver black metal attributes such as tremolo picking and guitar solos but performs them so half-assed that it sounds too ridiculous for black metal and likewise sounds too out of character for post-rock.

I can understand some music lover's infatuation with emotional content being enough to make a good album but that is not the case with yours truly. Emotional connections in a pool of mediocrity equals, well, mediocrity. Probably the most competent aspect of SOUVENIRS is the production and mixing job. I do have to admit that the atmospheric qualities work quite well and indeed in retrospect ALCEST was one of the big players that brought the term blackgaze into existence with their debut EP "Le Secret," however Neige got all wimpy with the black metal aspects without jettisoning them all together which creates a rather tenuous vacuous tinniness within the overall structure of the compositions. Well, i'm glad some people can find pleasure in this debut by ALCEST because i sure can't, but i'm all on board starting with the second album.

Blackgaze. Such a beautiful, aesthetic name for a genre. It combines shoegaze's immersion with black metal's heavy and bleak riffages, creating an atmosphere that feels simultaneously warm and melancholic; like a dismal cloudy day, whose dreariness is depressing but, strangely, comfortable. Alcest. Since their first EP, LE SECRET, they solidified their position as forerunners of the genre; however, in their 2014 album (SHELTER), apparently the band changed their directions to pure dream pop/shoegaze. Kodama. A beautiful, nocturnal, cryptic cover (one of my favorite covers ever! The only reason I tried this album, to be honest), with a strange concept (related to the movie Princess Mononoke), and ALCEST's return to their acclaimed blackgaze style.

I can't say as a knowledgeable authority this is ALCEST at the top of their game, but the production, songwriting, and musicianship seem to indicate that, at the very least, they're doing pretty well. Blackgaze's peculiar style is enticing and unique, and through KODAMA's forty minutes, my ears were engulfed in ALCEST's fogginess. While my experience was good, I found the sameness to be KODAMA's biggest issue. Offering little variation, repetitive riffs, annoyingly unintelligible screams (sound awesome but are absolutely impossible to decipher or accompany; additionally, the clean vocals are much better), there's honestly no effort to make the tracks feel different from each other. Perhaps intentionally, perhaps not, KODAMA is shaped, sonically, as a huge, forty-minutes-long song. But who is to blame? Not black metal nor shoegaze are known for eclecticism. ALCEST would naturally suffer from that hereditary dysfunction.

KODAMA (and ALCEST) didn't disappoint but neither did they astound me. While this will undoubtedly be a treat for shoegaze/atmospheric black metal fans, personally, I found it enjoyable but unmemorable.

Oh, let me add nuance to that last word: while I do remember my experience with KODAMA, literally any moment of it that pops in my mind sounds virtually the same.

However, perhaps just this sort of diversion was needed to allow Alcest to recharge their black metal batteries, because the full blackgaze style is back on Kodama, a concept album inspired by the conflict between the human and natural worlds as depicted in the classic anime movie Princess Mononoke. The concept isn't as awkward a fit for atmospheric black metal as you may think - after all, aren't Wolves In the Throne Room positively obsessed with just such ideas? - and though the delivery doesn't seem to draw very much on traditional Japanese music (or anime soundtracks) stylistically, it does feel like Alcest more confidently setting forth their particular formula, though it is a formula which I've grown weary of.

After the relative disappointment of Shelter, Neige and co. seem to have decided to return to earlier times and sounds in most ways. These are thoughtful compositions...moving from contemplative to aggressive in the wink of an eye. Even my cat has been surprised by some of the sudden tempo or volume changes, and he snatches birds out of the sky. The vocals either caress or scream. Yes! the screams are back! Yes the guitar washes are back! Everything that I loved about these guys is here in spades. Overall the production seems more fitting which is to say there is now a bottom end, something I complained about on the earlier albums.

I read something somewhere that said this was their "Japanese" album. I don't know what a "Japanese" album is, though I've always liked that song Sukiyaki. I guess, yes, Neige said it was influenced by the film Princess Mononoke. Well enough. It is all full of light and darkness, of earth and air, of death and life.

Of course I still do not understand the words (my fault, I don't speak French). Welcome back Alcest. I'd forgotten about you and it's good to see an old friend can still awe.

It was always going to come to this.

When you are the forefront of a genre, you can imagine the difficulty when you inevitably get tired of what you've created. Historical examples come in plenty, either an artist keeps plugging away at the same thing, most of the time missing the point, although occasionally getting some good material in, or the artist will completely leave behind the style, maybe start a new band in a different genre, or just take a complete tangent to the it, alienating fans, but also creating new ones. I could take the example of a band like Marillion, who more or less invented Neo-Prog, leaving the style in the dust after just four records, because I think they felt it was getting dry already. And then their counterparts, IQ, who stuck with the style for their whole career, knocking away at getting it right, but never quite getting the same as the beginning (of course, for the sake of analogy, I'll ignore Frequency, which is obviously their best).

So Neige, frontrunner of this 'Blackgaze' genre that's been coming up for a while, has finally decided to leave it behind, with the fourth full-length album of Alcest, his main band, Shelter. It wasn't hard to see this coming, Les voyages de l'âme was more or less a dark Shoegaze album with a couple of blast beats and screaming parts, and mapping the natural progressions of musicians normally show them creating full albums based on small elements introduced in previous records. Hopefully this means the next Alcest album will be entirely in English sung by Neil Halstead?

Neige has little tricks that he uses, throughout all of the Alcest releases, an even over into his other bands, like Lantlôs and Amesoeurs. You'll know the delay-ridden acoustic guitar, the low rumble of what is often a loop of Neige singing a single note, the slightly jangly chord sound that often comes in after the aforementioned acoustic/delay part. Theory people will know the diminished chords and the resolutions on V and IV, just the little things that remind us of who's composing. But what Neige has done with Shelter, by cutting off any remnants of their metal past, black metal or not, he has essentially cut his list of tricks in two. Gone are the blast beats, the fantastic screams. Gone are the reverb-drenched overdrive riffs that pack such a punch to this dreamy music. And although I'm trying not to sound like a disgruntled metalhead who wants it to be br00tal, it means that this album is mostly one-sided.

And sure, you could argue that dropping the heaviness could open Neige up to new sounds, but honestly, this is just everything on the previous records, but without the metal. Sure, the addition of the string parts is new, but that just piles on the dreaminess even more until it becomes Valtari-levels of ambience. This album is more or less the same thing start to finish in terms of mood and atmosphere.

But as much as this is a change from the Alcest I love, this is still a great record. It's slow, I'll admit, but once you give it a few listens, even the tiny little melodies that each track develops become glorious. Alcest have always been about emotion, in all of their albums, and Shelter is no different. Except, unlike Écailles de lune, this isn't a depressing album that you want to listen to alone in a darkened room and cry about. This is an uplifting record, euphoric even. The same level of emotional saturation that Alcest have had is still there, but it's focused on happy emotions. Glory, peace, dreams, aspirations, the haze isn't a cover over darkened emotions anymore, it's a positive haze, like staring at the sun?

Oh yeah, I'm trying hard not to mention a certain big deal with a pink cover that people are inevitably going to compare this to, but it's just too obvious. Alcest have gone happy, the cover is a blurry picture of the sun with people covering it. It'll be hard to avoid mentioning the words sun, bat, and her. But in my honest opinion, Sunbather wasn't a happy record, at least not like Shelter is. People are inevitably going to say that Alcest are copying, or bandwagoning with, Deafheaven, with the concept and idea behind this album, so I feel we need to mention the fact that Deafheaven wouldn't exist without Alcest. Moving on?

I've a had a huge case of the lead single effect with "Opale", a track that I didn't think much of when its video was released, but now can't get enough of. The lead hook, the atmospheric aaahs and oohs that the album opens with in "Wings" may be insanely simple, but somehow Neige creates a beautifully uplifting atmosphere with such a simple motif, which is more or less the essence of Alcest's music. The same thing happens in "Voix Sereines", another of my favourite tracks, with that simple little motif that even a child could think of, but Neige uses his voice and his pedalboard to bring it to utter glory. But I have to comment on the lead riff of "Opale", which I'm still not convinced on. It just feels slightly off. I really like the notes and the progression, but the rhythm is weird and off-putting, somehow sounding like it's in an odd signature when it's really in straight 4/4. I thought that it would grow on me and I would get used to it, but it still bugs me 10 listens later.

The other highlight track here is obviously going to be "Away", Alcest's first English song, featuring Slowdive singer Neil Halstead. On my first listen to Shelter, I have to admit that it got a bit boring, as pleasant and pretty as it was. The songs just mix into a haze of ambient vocals and delay and reverb and (new on this record) strings. But then Away comes, with Neil's rather regular vocal delivery, speaking in English. Now, I have to admit my lack of education that, despite knowing about them for years, I have never actually listened to Slowdive (although I know exactly what I'm doing when this review is done), but the match of this simple voice with Alcest's dreamy instrumentation is nearly perfect. Neige's distant background vocals lift up the chorus to great heights, and with this song situated right around the point when you start to get bored of the same sound, it's nearly perfect in reminding you that Alcest are still moving forward.

Although I enjoy this record, I feel in terms of the sheer number of great riffs and motifs throughout Écailles De Lune and Les Voyages, this is always going to pale in comparison. The mood of the music is new and fresh and wonderful for Alcest, but I think in terms of the quantity of riffs that I say are amazing, this isn't their best. And I think, honestly, that's the only reason that I believe this is the weakest Alcest album yet, simply because of the quantity of great ideas. I love it, but taking the perspective of others, I can see how many who are not Alcest fanboys may find this 'boring'. I really hope Neige continues the happier mood onto further albums, but he really should develop some more great melodies to base the atmosphere on. Like the final track, 10-minute "Délivrance". Ever since "Eccailes De Lune", the idea of a 10-minute Alcest track has been in the minds of everyone, wanting another thundering epic. But Délivrance just sort of meanders, holding together its main theme in waves of ambience. It's pleasant music, but the fact that the 9 minutes of "Eccailes De Lune Part I" had more riffs than half of this album really shows how drawn out these pieces are becoming.

Shelter may not be a perfect record. It lacks the sheer quantity of great riffs and melodies that the past Alcest albums had, but I'm definitely loving the happier side. Allegedly this is the first Alcest record where Neige has stopped writing about his 'experience' (what it exactly is is still unclear), when he was a child, representing a moving forward of Alcest's music into something new. Even though I think that Les Voyages is their best record, I could definitely see where people were coming from when they said it was trying to recreate past glory, and Shelter is most certainly a big step forward. It does get a bit empty sometimes, and a few of the songs, for a significant amount of time, are just pleasant ambience, but Opale and Away are definitely amongst Alcest's best tracks.

8.0

Originally written for my Facebook page/blog: www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog