Alcest

I’ve been obsessed with one album these past few days: Écailles de Lune from Alcest. Perhaps I listened to it so much because of the stormy, rainy weather, perhaps because my mood was a little melancholic, but mostly because this music is the kind of metal I enjoy the most. Like my favorite bands Agalloch, Drudkh, Wolves In The Throne Room, Alcest cannot be described as being a one-genre kind of metal. You could even argue whether this is metal at all. Fact remains that it combines so many elements that I enjoy: melancholic melodies, dreamy soundscapes, clean vocals, harsh black metal vocals. Each song on this album tells a story of its own. Neige never ceases to amaze me with his ability to paint musical landscapes that tend to make my mind leave the physical world to a higher state of being: dreaming, fantasizing, drifting.

My favorite song is Écailles de Lune Part II, which starts off with a dreamy melody, before it erupts in a few minutes of black metal fury. It makes me feel like I’m standing in the midst of a storm. And then, to my surprise, a folk melody with almost slavic influences (I couldn’t help but think of Drudkh here) follows the fury. We are allowed to relax a little, faery like vocals follow Neiges screams. The melody from the beginning returns and we can sink back into a dreamy state of being…..what a bliss!

Listen to Écailles de Lune Part II on YouTube:

I consider myself very lucky to have seen Alcest’s first live performance in Romania a couple of weeks ago!

Neige playing his first show in Romania