Band:	Alcest
Album:	Spiritual Instinct
Style:	Shoegaze, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	October 25, 2019
A review by:	nikarg

01. Les Jardins De Minuit
02. Protection
03. Sapphire
04. L'Île Des Morts
05. Le Miroir
06. Spiritual Instinct

If I could make a painting of Alcest's music, it would be rays of light finding their way through the branches of dark green cypress trees (you know, the ones that like cemeteries). The amount of light shining through and the thickness of the trees' branches both vary from album to album and if you were afraid that the band's signing to a big label would make the light too bright and blinding for you, fear not; Spiritual Instinct is not Shelter, even though it wouldn't be bad at all if it actually was.

The sixth full-length release of the French duo is more of a continuation to Kodama and another release inside the borders of the band's trademark sound that has always been an amalgam of bittersweet melancholy and aggressive fuzziness, with some blastbeats and shrieks thrown in for good measure. This time, and to spice things up a little, Neige has dived into post-metal as well and has gone for a more progressive style of songwriting, with Winterhalter treating the drum kit as a canvas on which he has the freedom to create his battering art.

The first two songs that were revealed before the album's release demonstrated that slight shift in Alcest's sound. The result was very rewarding as both of these songs are among the band's finest in their career, with "Protection" enjoying a constant change in tempo and rhythm, and even featuring parts that had they been performed with violin they'd have fallen under the folk category, and "Sapphire" being a two-faced animal with its beautiful melodies that go hand in hand with a filthy bass sound. With these two excellent samples preceding the release of Spiritual Instinct, excitement filled this reviewer's heart.

And when I first heard the opening track, this excitement reached sky-high limits. "Les Jardins De Minuit", with its intro of pounding drums and screeching guitars that build up to furious blastbeats before breaking into astonishing riffs taken straight from Mgła's book of wonders, boasts the best opening three minutes the band has ever come up with. The song continues bearing all sorts of gifts for your earholes until it reaches the six-minute mark, when you can hear Alcest at their most headbangable ever.

With such an impressive first half, it would have been almost impossible to continue at this level. The truth is that the second part of Spiritual Instinct does not live up to the expectations arisen by what came before it. "L'Île Des Morts" would have worked if it hadn't been too long for its own good and the last two tracks, albeit very different from each other, both feel like they are climbing up a mountain without ever reaching the peak or, in other words, they are building up to something that never comes. And although for the Shelter-esque "Le Miroir" this does not strike as a major issue, the title track is a bit of a letdown choice to close the album.

Spiritual Instinct is an introspective affair based on Neige's soul searching more than anything else, and wrapped in a very interesting and well-illustrated cover art that represents the primal and spiritual side of human nature in the form of the mythological Sphinx. It has excellent production, three of the most compelling songs Neige has ever written, and with a few tweaks it could have been one of the duo's finest offerings to date. As it is, it exudes spirituality, and balances sunbathed optimism and inner disarray by once again blending in Alcest's unique way the contrasting themes that make their metalgaze so attractive, both lyrically as well as sonically.

"Dans les jardins de minuit
Où s'est arrété le temps"