From underground beginnings as a raw black metal act, Alcest would morph into a wholly separate entity by the time debut Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde arrived in 2007.
It was a diverse melting pot with influences like that of My Blood Valentine and a few nods to the extreme yore that made it one of the exciting experimental metal records for the time. After some split releases and Neige indulging in some vague extremities again with Amesoeurs, only for the band to split after their debut, Alcest has risen again to embark on a new labour that has birthed the fruit – Écailles De Lune, a lush, verdant milieu of musical landscapes.
Stretching across two parts, the title track holds up a mirror to Alcest with part one waltzing through supplely clean vocals, only for the second part to revisit blast beats, harsh vocals and buzz saw guitars. Across its combined 18-plus minutes, it weaves with ease, the inimitable downcast aura that seemingly only Neige can sculpt.
Écailles De Lune, with its near perfect production, also visits the erstwhile sounds fearlessly throughout like the void of clean vocals, 'Percées de Lumière' and on the flip side, 'Solar Song'. The latter of which has Neige’s voice at its most ethereal, coiling around staggering guitars, creating an utterly entrancing vibe.
This record is gorgeously layered and ever unravelling, it’s about atmosphere and it doesn’t get much more hauntingly so on the album closer, 'Sur l'Océan Couleur de fer' which is like that of a harrowing but beautiful nautical dusk.
It’s emblematic of the record as a whole. It’s an otherworldly wander through that dense forest in a somnambulist state witnessing only the serene, and hypnotic, opaque vistas and timbres. It’s doubtlessly one of the most engrossing, melancholic, somewhat neurotic records of the year.
8/10
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