I’m looking at my calendar this morning and I notice it’s already February. It finally hit me. It makes me feel the need to apologize to you, the readers, because I named my favorite album of January 2012 prematurely. I’m referring to my review of exemplary Dutch blackened technicians Dodecahedron, whose comfort-melting self-title will still be up for an album of the year vote I’ll post at the end of 2012. However, they met their most respectable defeat literally one day prior to the inception of February 2012 when Alcest released their third full length Les Voyages de L’âme through Prophecy Productions. I feel embarrassed having to withdraw my initial claim, but I wouldn’t do so if I didn’t believe it justly belongs to Neige and Winterhalter.
In a recent interview, Neige emphasizes the importance of understanding that Alcest exists to convey his perceptions of another conscious reality, or world, if you will. He goes on to mention that he pays no mind to arbitrary categorizations of his compositions, such as shoegaze or, as I’ve heard hooted around the internet’s newest unwashed asshole recently: “hipster black metal”. Let’s be real here: Alcest strays so far away from traditional black metal or shoegaze that any such butt hurt accusations attributed to their music qualifies as pious or confrontational at best.
Neige and WH once again lure the listener into their ethereal auditory odyssey. It’s difficult to describe the album’s introductory atmospheres, which step towards the forefront with such serene grace that it’s as if, from the very first moment, you’re on their territory. Time effortlessly whisks past the listener rather than forcing you to move forward. You hear a voice. It’s inviting, natural, beautiful and all the adjectives synonymous with ‘fucking’ and ‘enthralling’ simultaneously. Every time I’ve listened to this record, which is streaming on Spotify for free by the way, I’ve been swaying and bobbing gently through its pellucid vibrations. On top of the polarizing vocal organization, Neige also concocts the endless celestial guitar and synthesis wizardry storming between both headphones.
I could see where Alcest could provide a new outlet of fascination not only to fans of Opeth, Anathema or Cynic but even to enthusiasts of non-metallic bands such as Memoryhouse or Stars of the Lid. Neige commands an expansive repertoire of techniques, employing dreamy, delicate floods of harmony one moment only to sweep them away with stupefying blackened tremolo tirades before songs have even begun to climax. Every measure leaves behind an echoing rally of vocals and/or synthesis to swarm your senses further. I can’t even begin to imagine how many tracks were used to record each of these songs. It’s HUGE, but not hulking. Magnetizing use of synthesizers yields a warming sensation that fills the space where guitars are trailing or temporarily absent. Hypnotizing vocal harmonies and distantly distorted screams act as a tempering adhesive that leads the listener through the most human of instruments. My favorite device was, predictably, the developed implementation of lyricism.
Brandishing a hefty palette of percussive techniques, drummer Winterhalter further expands the vast temporal sound scape of Les Voyages de L’âme. His unorthodox mismatching of heightened blasts, tempered structural support, and triumphant build flourishes into the foreground. Bursts and blumes slip through the cracks between Neige’s four billion tracks of triple threat musicianship to establish the firm foundation the entire record stands upon between guitar solos.
Summative Sentence: Les Voyages de L’âme delineates an eerie masterpiece that reminds one that a heterogeneous introspective approach to authoring music will breed innovative honest composition even when handling juxtaposed (yet intangible) creative elements exemplified in this case by what categorizers call black metal, shoegaze and ambient music.
Favorite Track: Nous sommes l’emeraude
