ÉCAILLES DE LUNE

This album is incredible, and I'm saying it as someone who doesn't like black metal that much, so give it a shot even if you are afraid of the vocals - most of the album is actually clean vocals. the music through all of the album is just beautiful, at times very soft (such as the last song) and at times more gritty and harsh (the third song Percées De Lumière) but always maintaining that special atmosphere and poweful, surreal feeling.

The first two songs are meant to be 1 song and are also the longest songs on the album, each of them almost 10 minutes, and they have their quite and more heavy sections, both exellent songs.

The third song Percées De Lumière showcases the more Black Metal influences in Alcest's music, and surprisingly for me, it might be my favorite song on the album, this is the heaviest song on the album and it is very powerful and beautiful (yup), especially the part that comes in around 4 and a half minutes. incredible.

Abysses, the forth song, is more like an interlude, some kind of moody ambient piece to let us relax from the previous song and enter the next one.

Solar Song, the fifth song, is what would have been the "single" of the album if Alcest was to be in a more mainstream label. The shortest song on the album (not counting Abysses), about 5 minutes long, this piece is the more Shoegaze one on the album, containing clean vocals only and a lot of use of backing vocals, another exellent song although for me less prominent then the others.

The Last song, Sur L'Océan Couleur De Fer, is just amazing and magical. very touching and soothing post-rock, with amazing vocals and music, ending the album exactly how it needs to.

I must also give a shot to the album cover which is, as the music, beautiful, and sets the mood for the album perfectly. So far this is my favorite album of 2010, highly recommended.