Customer Reviews

Ecailles De Lune [Vinyl]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alcest is the current musical venture of the blackwave mastermind, Neige. Known for his seamless blend of shoegaze and black metal, Neige is a pioneer in the field, and truly an expert at crafting heavy, crushing, beautiful music. Alcest's brilliant debut, Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde, played more with the shoegaze side of the blackwave genre, but Écailles de Lune finds Neige perfectly balancing these disparate influences while crafting a truly excellent record. Though you'll find some black metal inspired vocals on track 2 and 3, this is largely still a rock album, and Neige's incredible guitar playing is the perfect accompaniment to both his throaty screech and his unexpectedly beautiful singing voice. The instrumentation throughout the record is wisely placed and expertly played, and the production really shines on the opening and closing tracks, the first a progressive number boasting multiple components and a variety of incredible guitar tones. Truly, a record for any fan of guitar rock, this is one of the best of the year.

I was skeptical when I first discovered Alcest. Being informed that it was a major key black metal-esque album with shoegaze elements, I expected to hate it. I'm not a huge fan of the new indie/post-rock black metal style, and generally find it quite boring. However, with this album I was pleasantly surprised upon first listen, and blown away upon repeat listens.

The highlights of the album are the first three tracks. All of them have a very triumphant feel to them in the more metal inspired parts, yet a dreamlike feel in the softer parts. In fact, during the quieter passages, Alcest reminds me of the occult-inspired Goth Rock band Fields of the Nephilim on their seminal "Elizium" album. The end result obtained are foggy visions of a vast meadow in spring. Not the normal feeling one expects from something people refer to as "black" metal.

All in all, this is a beautiful album that I can listen to in almost any situation and feel inspired. The musicianship is top-notch, the melodies stay with you, and the images they evoke in the minds eye are incredible.

Thumbs up!

I took a chance on this unheard of band and I'm glad I did. The minute I started listening to it I knew it was going to be something special. Every track on this six track album is unique and diverse.

Track 1, 'Ecailles de lune - Part 1', is a mid-tempo melancholic journey with layered harmonizing clean vocals. It very much reminded me of some of Ulver's older material which utilized clean vocals.

Track 2, 'Ecailles de lune - Part 1', starts out deceptively dreamy and mellow, with a simple acoustic guitar passage set to the sound of ocean waves, but seconds later all hell breaks loose as the song transitions into a blistering snare-blast driven black metal song, with harsh vocals and very melodic and catchy guitar work. Good stuff.

Track 3, my favorite track of the album, is titled 'Percées de lumière' and features such a catchy melody throughout the song that every time I listen to it the damn thing is stuck in my head for hours on end. It's slow to mid paced with shrieking black metal style lyrics and a touch of clean female vocals.

Track 4, 'Abysses', is just a minute and a half of dreamy ambient noise to bridge tracks 3 and 5. Nothing special, though it does lead nicely into..

Track 5, 'Solar Song', is a mesmerizing, hypnotic song with layered male clean vocals and a mix of electric and acoustic guitars that swirl around behind the soothing and rich sound of the vocals. A very mellow contrast to the harsh black metal style of tracks 2 and 3.

Finally, the album ends with a very somber 'Sur L'Océan Couleur De Fer', yet another very mellow and hypnotic song. There are no drums here, just acoustic guitars and melancholy clean singing.

This album is so interesting because it's so diverse. It starts somewhat calm, goes into a frenzy during tracks 2 and 3, then winds down into a soothing, dreamy sleep. The album demonstrates a distinct flow from one song to the next, despite them all being so different. One of the best albums I've heard in a long time, and certainly refreshing to the ears of a typical fan of black metal music, as I am.

This album introduced me to this black metal/shoegaze scene. Prior to hearing of alcest if anyone said Black Metal and Shoegaze in the context of the same music, I would have looked at them and said "What?" I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who listens to heavy metal primarily, and this has easily become one of my favorite metal albums. Heavier than the previous Alcest release the entire album is haunting and mystifying. Unlike a lot of listeners I hope to hear more of the black metal growls visited by this album, as to me as a metal fan, this layered on the complex and haunting melodies of the music creates a powerful, emotionally charged environment that exemplifies how heavy loud music can also be beautiful. If your not into black metal, the shrieked vocals are sparse, and the clean vocals are more prominent in the music. The guitar work is layered and complex, but also finds demonstrates melodic, memorable metal riffs rather than a messy haze of sound.

I am really only writting this because there is only one other review so far. This album hit me right away and quickly became one of the main CDs I play right now. Neige is an amazing guitar player who gets so much feeling out of not only the guitar but his vocals whether they are harsh or clean, always fit in perfectly. This is being called shoegaze/ambient but it still has black metal, rock and many other influences. Neige is the best and most prolific in this genre right now [ if you call it Post Black Metal ] he is the vocalist on the new Lantlos .neon album. Lantlos seems to have the same Black Metal history but the same post black metal wanderings. Amesours and Les Discrets also fit in this genre and have something to do with Neige. I think the reason these bands seem so welcome to me is that Black Metal being my favourite genre, can get stale sometimes and this is some fresh air down the pipe.

awww its so perty, makes me think of the woods and soft summer nights; *RETCH* at least Asphyx has a new album out this year.

leave this pansy garbage for Dawson's Creek fans.

This music was made "untouched by human hands". Truly beautiful. Let me try to describe it, if i can. Tranquil agitation? Made by angels for angels? Not "thinking man's metal", but "man-thinking" metal? There are times when listening that i feel like I'm floating on the bottom of the ocean floor - dead but alive drifting blissfully in oblivion. The occasional death metal screams that puncture the aquatic ambiance are disarming, but not distressing - almost like an undersea creature passing by in the musical parade. Just amazing music no matter what moniker is given to describe it, such as, post-metal or metal-gaze. Such labels are insufficient to describe the beauty and wonder of Ecailles De Lune. Truly an album that is in a world of it's own.

this is so incredible and anyone who loves emotional driving music should grab this pronto. agree with the FON comparisons.

This is a great album. I have a lot of patience for music, which comes in handy here, as the album tends to wander off into la-la land. Not that it's a bad thing, but the easily distracted need not apply. It is a tough album to place, as half of it is black metal (sort of) and half is pure shoegaze. I say sort of black metal because the vocals are black metal-ish, as is some of the riffing, but the lyrical content is about as far as you can get from black metal. Even Niege, the mastermind of this record, says the vocals are intended to sound 'otherworldly' and not black metal-ey. So call this black metal with extreme caution.

That said, this is a very enjoyable album. It's about Neige's wonderful fairy land (no, seriously), and is pretty lighthearted for how intense the music can be at times. There are, as mentioned above, some distinct BM influences (trem picking with distortion, shrieks) as well as some straight shoegaze influences (mid-tempo melodies, doom-inspired clean vocals).

It is a very listenable album, though I it starts to peter off towards the end. The first three tracks are pure awesomeness though. If you are a black metal purist, you will probably hate this album. If you are a shoegazer, well, hopefully the BM vocs don't make you pass out. Great album for painters.

Great cd, full of melody but also with agressive moments. A must have for all fans of ambient black metal!