Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs review
| Band: | Amesoeurs |
| Album: | Amesoeurs |
| Style: | Shoegaze, Black metal |
| Release date: | March 10, 2009 |
| Guest review by: | Unhealer |
01. Gas In Veins
02. Les Ruches Malades
03. Heurt
04. Recueillement
05. Faux Semblants
06. I XIII V XIX XV V XXI XVIII XIX - IX XIX - IV V I IV
07. Trouble (Eveils Infâmes)
08. Video Girl
09. La Reine Trayeuse
10. Amesoeurs
11. Au Crépuscule De Nos Rêves
I remember checking out this record for the first time almost three years ago. Back then when I didn't even know who Neige was and I usually wasn't very passionate about the thought of metal blending with other considerably different music styles. Being just not ready for this kind of release, I turned it down at first listen. Years later, after getting into the likes of Alcest and Les Discrets and having expanded my tastes further beyond the boundaries of metal, I was reminded of that strange project Amesoeurs and I decided to give it another chance.
And good thing that I did.
Amesoeurs warms you up for the show with the atmospheric instrumental "Gas In Veins", mainly a black metal track that consist of obscure arpeggios with a splash of industrial-ish noises and highly distorted guitar soundscapes; features which by the way, you will be submitted to across the entire record. Right after this composition by Fursy Teyssier, we are introduced to what Amesoeurs is really about; post-punk riffs reminiscent of the likes of Joy Division and The Cure holding hands with the dirt of black metal in its shoe-gazing fashion (call it blackgaze, go ahead). The vocal duties are shared equally between the very well known desperate harsh vocals of Neige and the angelic, clear voice of Audrey Sylvain; a very talented girl also in charge of bass duties who some of you may know for her recent work with Peste Noire. Some tunes that are solely handled by Audrey can sound poppy and even radio acceptable, such as "Faux Semblants" or the relaxing "Video Girl". Needless to say that most songs don't fit that target: harsh songs like "Recueillement" and "La Reine Trayeuse" with those disturbing screams on the second half can scare the crap out of the unaware listener.
Most songs have up-tempo drumming, with occasional blast beats in charge of the somewhat famous Winterhalter. This doesn't necessarily mean the songs sound "happy", in fact there is a somber touch in all the songs due to the aforementioned soundscapes and lyrics that portray a dark and depressive modern civilization. Also, the guitar tone sounds really dirty, with a splash of clean arpeggios, and enhanced by a constant use of pedal effects as the final make-up touch for the atmosphere of the album. The production is also remarkable, those black metal riffs coming from two guitars simultaneously can be appreciated and discerned perfectly and so do the colorful bass lines, which you will be noticing and enjoying without trying too hard.
As of now, I'm not entirely sure if I liked this record so much because I've never heard something similar before, but I can affirm that this record had a big impact on me. The music, the French lyrics, the album artwork, song titles, the dream team line-up, the obscure atmosphere, the vocals; I feel even the smaller details all perfectly blend in this early stage schizophrenic journey called Amesoeurs, a journey which I very often enjoy to do.
Outstanding songs: "La Reine Trayeuse", "Au Crépuscule de Nos Rêves", "Heurt", "Video Girl".
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 10 |
Written by Unhealer | 03.03.2012
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
N/A
N/A
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Rating: N/A |
Amusingly, when I type "Amesoeurs" into the OpenOffice.org Writer, the spell checker politely suggests that perhaps I meant "Amateurs" or "Poseurs". Luckily, neither of these terms apply to Neige's post-punk/black metal project; however, this doesn't prevent the long awaited and highly anticipated Amesoeurs LP from being a disappointment. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 12
Visited by: 119 users
| Unhealer Eclecticist Posts: 2311  |
My first review ever! Even if you have no interest for the album, I'd like some feedback on the writing if possible guys.
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603  |
Your first review is pretty good; you keep some sort of "theme" throughout every paragraph, don't meander much and you're quite descriptive. I haven't heard this release yet, but yours and jup's review combined give me a pretty good picture of what should I expect if I ever get to listen to it. And how could I forget, my first review also had a 9.5 mark on it 
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Unhealer Eclecticist Posts: 2311 |
Written by Milena on 06.03.2012 at 00:04 Well, thank you lady Yeah, I chose one of my favorites records ever to do my first review. I figured out it would be better to do it with a record that I pretty much remember everything from so many listens. I guess it is a lot harder to do it accurately when, for example, you are asked to do one for a record that just came out or something like that.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Written by Milena on 06.03.2012 at 00:04 One of the better things Niege took part on if you ask me., Probably because it felt like a band instead of a dude with session musicians. The strentgh of this albums lies in the vocals and nice bass sound. I love the pop vibe here.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603 |
Written by Unhealer on 06.03.2012 at 00:27 That's a pretty good thing to do there is no "accurate" way, you just describe what it sounds like, and praise/scorn it depending on the level of your like/dislike... about the description-part of the deal, it's just practice, and some attentive and extensive listening, the only thing tricky is properly putting it within the context within that year's/that genre's perspective in order to offer some more useful information. So it is nice to be well informed. And about the jdging-part, it's just your opinion... obviously, you'd have to learn to be more "resilient" to the charms of some genres/artists you really like, or to listen to something regardless of what you've previously disliked... kinda just place yourself out of your own box for a moment there to see how it would work for a completely neutral listener. But no one can criticize you for writing you dislike an acclaimed release, or liking something not a lot of people like - it's just your opinion I always try to transfer my enthusiasm for some release, and if someone is mislead by it - hey, they know what type of stuff I like and review, and if they don't, they've learned now and they can avoid it from now on, as they wish  but, as you can see in my latest review comment thread, I do like arguing over facts and the points of why someone dislikes something I liked, for the fun of it Whoops I got carried away, but lengthy comments are better than no comments
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 06.03.2012 at 23:18 That's probably the reason why I've only partially liked Alcest releases, despite the beauty of the music... there's a lot of one-man-domination in a lot of music I listen to normally, so when I find the same thing when I go outside the box, I kinda get frustrated a bit because you can clearly see what is a band effort, noticing the diverse ideas and progression in a band's sound, and what is one man trying to achieve his vision... obviously, I'll like some of those visionaries, but some I won't like that much.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Unhealer Eclecticist Posts: 2311 |
Written by Milena on 06.03.2012 at 23:51 Don't worry, it's nice to get some advice from you  Written by X-Ray Rod on 06.03.2012 at 23:18 Absolutely! Alcest isn't even a dude with sessions musicians. It's just him doing everything  Only Winterhalter is taking the drummer spot lately, on a wild guess it's just because Neige probably can't do blastbeats. There is a difference between Neige and guys like Daniel from POS or Mikael from Opeth; who are some kind of "benevolent dictators" (As Steven Wilson said) in the sense that they write 95% of the music, but then they present it to the band and they add their own personality to the music.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by Unhealer on 07.03.2012 at 15:33 ANother differenc ebing that guys like Daniel and Mikael are infinitely more talented than Neige and totally not a one-trick pony.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603 |
Written by Unhealer on 07.03.2012 at 15:33 The way it works for Opeth is how it works for Sonata Arctica really... it's kind of funny, since Tony always encourages other band members to bring their own songs into the studio, but they always ignore him, so he ends up writing everything. When you ask other band members about it, they usually say:"Oh well, when Tony starts writing bad songs, we'll kick in, but right now we're happy doing the solos and the arrangements" and so years pass... As for PoS, I believe the main, hidden reason why Fredrik left is disagreements with Dani over the future of the band... Dani has some sort of a "rockstar complex" which is a direct consequence of the size of his ego... can't explain what I meant, and we're going offtopic anyway, but if you don't understand, think about the changes in the sound and read interviews and watch videos and it will hit you right in the head like it did with me
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Unhealer Eclecticist Posts: 2311 |
Written by Milena on 07.03.2012 at 15:46 Yeah, I have the "Ending Themes" DVD and I totally agree with you! Without going too deep into the relationship of POS members, if you are in a band where there's one guy doing almost everything and you don't get chance to participate it's very likely you will get tired someday.
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603 |
Written by Unhealer on 07.03.2012 at 16:01 Unless that arrangement fits you, and it's clear it doesn't always fit...
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Nosurper Stinky Lips Posts: 442  |
Joy Division and The Cure holding hands with the dirt of black metal That sounds hard not to like
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