ÉCAILLES DE LUNE

Alcest's "Écailles de lune" got one of the most beautiful cover arts I've ever seen. Probably the most beautiful one. So lovely view of dreamy romanticist underwater world... simply a feast of imagination.

So what's hiding beneath the surface of this handsome cover? Well, the music here mostly is very similar to cover's image. It's a pretty slow and immersive shoegazer mixed with post-black-metal. A very strange mix, isn't it? So here we go, drowning in the water of melancholy and sorrow, and floating away into the heartbreaking world of Alcest...

The first track here, "Écailles de lune - part 1", is almost 100% shoegaze with some metal influences placed at the end. Vocals here are only clean, but it's still a very good representation of Alcest's music.

Second part of this song is more black metal-tinged though. Some rough screaming vocals here in the beginning, but clean voice finally is still present as well. Nevertheless of the presence of extreme side, this song is still very melodic.

Both first and second halves of title track are 9+ minutes long, so altogether they're creating an almost 20 minutes long epic. A very impressive start for this album!

The next track here is "Percées de lumière", which continues the black metal side of previous track (but still with very prominent shoegaze sounds). It is followed by "Abysses", a short atmospheric instrumental.

"Solar Song' drives us back onto the song side, and it's again more of a shoegaze thing, with no rough vocals present. Album closes with "Sur l'océan couleur de fer", which is, despite of its minimalism, one of the highlights here. Performed almost strictly with guitar played in acoustic way, with clean vocals only, it provides us some perfect melodies, which reminds me a bit of Opeth's "The Night and the Silent Water"'s acoustic breaks.

Strangely enough, but I'd recommend this album for those who are keen on shoegaze and dream pop but not for any fans of black metal. As any other good shoegaze record, "Écailles de lune" provides some really wonderful slow and detached passages, it immerses us into its melancholic atmosphere, and so the atmosphere is really a worthwile here.

If you love slow and sad music, don't miss it! 10/10