Thread: alcest

was kind of shocked there isnt an alcest thread. i was going to put them in my dsbm thread as post shoegaze black, but they deserve their own thread.



alcest was founded in 1999 in bagnols-sur-cèze france but now work from paris. its a 2 man band, consisting of neige (snow in french) who does all instrumentals and vocals, and winterhalter on drums. both were in amesours and peste noire, bigger names on the french black metal scene.



tristesse hivernale in 2001 and le secret was released in 2005 and were the bands only real foray into a black metal project. 2 original members, aeignor and argoth, left and neige decided to take the his vision in a more post sounding shoegaze way.

Tristesse Hivernale (2001)
Le Secret (2005)
Souvenirs d'un autre monde (2007)
Écailles de Lune (2010)
Les Voyages de l'Âme (2012)




featuring audrey sylvain from amesoeurs.


this whole album is fantastic.

they just released les voyages de l'Âme and its quite good so far.



post black or shoegaze tends to be atmospheric, lengthy and introspective. the music you stare at things to while thinking. i tend to listen to a decent amount of this genre when sketching or painting or even doing chores around the house. hope someone checks it out.

Some of the stuff is very musical and interesting. It kind of amazes me that artists who can be otherwise so musical don't see that the vocalizing (growling) isn't adding anything to the musical product and is in many ways taking away from it.

I mean when you examine it from an objective musical perspective, the way the vocal is being injected into the music doesn't add anything from a melodic (it has no melody), inflective (it has no inflection), or lyrical (you can't understand what's being said) standpoint. I have heard this type of vocalizing that had some degree of a rhythmic element to it, but not in this case.

It almost seems as though the growling is being added as an afterthought just to legitimize it as a particular genre of music. Kinda like "Okay, that's a wrap on the music. Now track some random growling in there so the metalheads will buy it."

I don't mean this to sound like as much of a criticism as it does, I just honestly don't get it.

I'm equally shocked that there wasn't an Alcest thread. They're one of the best metal bands around today.

Originally Posted by CoolBec

Some of the stuff is very musical and interesting. It kind of amazes me that artists who can be otherwise so musical don't see that the vocalizing (growling) isn't adding anything to the musical product and is in many ways taking away from it.

I mean when you examine it from an objective musical perspective, the way the vocal is being injected into the music doesn't add anything from a melodic (it has no melody), inflective (it has no inflection), or lyrical (you can't understand what's being said) standpoint. I have heard this type of vocalizing that had some degree of a rhythmic element to it, but not in this case.

It almost seems as though the growling is being added as an afterthought just to legitimize it as a particular genre of music. Kinda like "Okay, that's a wrap on the music. Now track some random growling in there so the metalheads will buy it."

I don't mean this to sound like as much of a criticism as it does, I just honestly don't get it.

well i like the mild growl (and it is mild copared to a lot of black metal)but on many songs they have clean vocals. most of ecailles de lune (album) is in clean vocal. theyre good all around. id love to see them live.

As someone who has seen them live I can confirm that you want to.

I'm sure they exceeded expectations! they should tour for the new release, so ill catch them then!

I think everyone is surprised that there was no thread for them already. Personally I prefer their music when it doesn't have the screams, I just think it works better. But they're a great band and I love all three of their full lengths.

Oh I love the clean vocals, like on solar song. But growls give a certain vibe. Where ecailles 1 is slow and atmospheric ecailles 2 uses growls to give a more desolate feel. If it was all clean id still listen, but think it was etheral to the point of kitsch.

But the thing is they're not playing metal. It's shoegaze and I'd personally prefer the Black Metal elements to disappear completely. That's just me though.

But that's like saying that Limp Bizkit aren't playing rock and you'd like the guitars to disappear completely.