Alcest - Écailles De Lune - guest review
Alcest - Écailles De Lune - guest review
Tracklist
01. Écailles De Lune - Part 102. Écailles De Lune - Part 2
03. Percées De Lumière
04. Abysses
05. Solar Song
06. Sur L'océan Couleur De Fer
Guest review by
4look4rd October 30, 2010
Alcest is the brainchild of Neige, a French black metal musician famous for his collaborations with Peste Noir and Amesoeurs. The band's sound can be described as an exquisite cross between black metal and shoegazing, two rather obscure genres. This unique combination of styles creates an ethereal atmosphere that takes the listener from a state of complete relaxation to utter desolation.
Compared to their previous album, Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde, Écailles de Lune is much darker and heavier. The acoustic guitars are replaced by heavily distorted electric guitars; clean and whispered vocals, although still present, lost some of their share to high pitched black metal shrieks. The lyrics on this album also tend to be on the darker side of the spectrum. Despite all of these deviations from the original formula, Alcest remains accessible to those outside of the metal scene because of its balance between aggressiveness and serenity.
Neige wrote, composed, and performed most of the lyrics, songs, and instruments found in Écailles de Lune. The lyrics were composed in French, but do not let this be a turn off if you do not understand the language; because in this type of music vocals are simply used as a complement to the atmosphere. With that being said, expect to hear beautiful female vocals, dreamy whispers, and haunting shrieks.
Haunted by the mirage of happier days
I wait for the echoes of the night
To be born on the open sea
This excerpt from the first part of the title song sets the melancholic, yet blissful, atmosphere of the entire album.
Neige once declared that Alcest is the embodiment of dreams he had when he was a child. He dreamed about Fairyland, a place with "colors, forms and sounds that do not exist here." The album allows the listener to get a glimpse of this world of fantasy. The mixture between the aggressive black metal and the ethereal shoegazing takes the listener in a journey through an array of emotions and to the depths of human imagination.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by 4look4rd | October 30, 2010
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:
8.7
8.7
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Rating:
8.7 |
Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde was something quite new. Its combination of Black metal and Shoegaze, occasionally referred to as 'metalgaze', revealed that even metalheads occasionally dig warm, subtle music conceptually revolving around a wonderland or fairyland, where the bunnies hop through gently sloped meadows and spring is everlasting and more wonderfully jolly things. Who knows, maybe we're not as inevitably hell-bound as we think we are. Read more ›› |
Comments
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5
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It's Peste Noire... And Niege berely did one part from ONE song from Peste Noire's second album. Otherwise he did NOTHING else.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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Seconded. Also, Amesoeurs was not a collaboration, he was part of the band, the main part actually. Not a bad review, but you should focus more on the technical side of the music, because the readers who didn't listen to Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde won't have any idea of what Écailles De Lune sounds like even after reading your review.
---- Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.
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Posts: 848
I mentioned those bands just to show that he comes from a Black Metal background, I do not particularly listen to either of those bands. I should probably have changed the wording of that sentence, but I over looked it when editing (never thought it would be such a big deal).
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Posts: 6212
@ the author - your nick is the best dracula camouflage ever! 
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