Shelter is the much-anticipated Alcest album that completely does away with the black metal element of their sound. What we’re left with is a well-produced post-rock/shoegaze/bliss-pop that is at times reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, Sigur Ros, and Smashing Pumpkins. It is what it is. A part of me enjoys this a lot, another part of me really misses the black metal counterpoint to their sound, and another part of me dismisses it as fluff.

But let’s back up a minute. Once upon a time, black metal was a scary underground movement of scary music for scary people – and that’s it. There was no legitimizing, and no half-hearted hipster scene-following. If you knew about it, you were either a part of it, or it kind of scared you and you stayed away from it. Eventually, the movement grew, and became even scarier with U.S. bands like Leviathan taking the music to the absolute pit of ugliness and Weakling turning black metal’s misanthropy toward the self, while French bands Antaeus, Blut Aus Nord, bands of Les Legions Noires and others churned out brutal, twisted abominations of sound. It was around the mid 2000s when recordings with the “blackgaze” sound first started to appear, not the least of which was Alcest’s own Le Secret. Although a minor aberration at first, this deviation caught hold and exploded within the scene.

The reason I mention this is because context is important when listening to Alcest’s music. I have no problem with what Alcest is doing. What I have a problem with is people not understanding the context of this music. Alcest’s music comes out of a scene with its roots deep in ugliness and evil. Understanding what black metal as a movement had to go through to get where it is now gives Alcest’s music the weight it needs to truly appreciate what’s being done here. Maybe I’m reading into it all too heavily, but I believe that Alcest, among others, represents the redemption of black metal.

Alcest’s story is that of so many people, myself included, that it’s impossible for me to take this album out of context of the narrative. It’s the story of emerging from whatever trials you might be dealing with – addictions, rage, broken relationships, whatever it might be – into a moment of peace that comes with maturity. It doesn’t ignore the past, and it doesn’t last for long, but it brings a sense of reconciliation with a new, broader framework.

This music is an honest and sincere attempt to create that bittersweet, yearning sense of momentary reconciliation, although unfortunately, the album has more than its share of missteps. Without the black metal arrangements to lend power to the music, the climax of “Voix Sereines” falls flat. “L’Eveil des Muses” never consummates its moody buildup. Neil Halstead’s (Slowdive) vocals on “Away” are distractingly weak.

It’s “Delivrance” that legitimizes this thing for me. When I first heard it, I thought to myself, I’m glad somebody is making music like this, because it pinpoints that particular feeling that I’ve felt so often in my life. Yes, it’s indulgent in its repetition, and the production is perhaps too crystalline, but it’s so honest and somehow true that I can’t help but let it be what it is. The context from which this album emerges and the sincerity of the emotions expressed justify it for me. And what’s more, my wife liked it. And there’s a time and a place for that too.

It’s okay. The darkness is real, but so is the light. And it’s good and right to move toward the light, even if imperfectly so – even if it’s a little bit cheesy.

”Autre Temps” opens up with a fairly pleasant bunch of accoustic melodies with a nice Åkerfeldt touch to them, and a certain meditative mood is immediately brought forward in the same breath. Neige’s soft and ghostly vocal approach fits in this layout no doubt, being well framed-up by the instrumentation and on-key in this song as much as the rest, although it doesn’t hit the mark much in terms of expressiveness all through the disc. ”Là Où Naissent Les Couleurs Nouvelles” rapidly comes up with a handful of sharp licks that do take aback with the strength of their emotional grit, which leads the tune on a safely tight stride shifting between poetically somber verses and some solid and genuinely black metal-associated buildups, coupled with a sore n’ deliciously bleak end wrap-up that brings to mind band names in the vein of Katatonia, Daylight Dies, and Paradise Lost, to name only three. It’s one of them moments on this release that would’ve made it a must-own, weren’t they so rarely aiding its ability to grip and crush. Les Voyages de l’Âme‘ is much more linear and watered down in terms of notable nuances, and whilst its psychedelically hypnotic nature is definitely wrapping up the mind with sheer passion from both of these musicians, filler bits and pieces of the tableau could’ve been fleshed out more or trimmed from the track since it quickly begins to sound like it could stretch out for three eternities and a day when the pace variations skip out of the picture completely. ”Nous Sommes L’Émeraude” suffers from the same kind of problem to a perhaps slightly lesser degree.

The drumming sounds more lively and persistent, and there’s a strongly and positively desperate intensity in the riffage that definitely works quite well back to back with Winterhalter’s attack, but even so, this is hardly a monumentally essential highlight to speak of. ”Beings of Light” comes up with a touch of genuine originality with an upbeat hivernal gallop and entrancing background melodies that sure are inspiring and attention-absorbing. Still, ”Faiseurs de Mondes” is the one absolute must-hear out of those eight tunes, masterfully rushing all through it’s damned near 8 minutes-long duration with one seriously entertaining and frankly anarchic-sounding collection of pattern shifts that brilliantly drove my excitement up the wall, breaking out of the audibly pre-defined comfort zone of the first half of the record (which seemed to take a bit of a drastic turn with those two tracks raising the bar a peg). Nevertheless, both ”Haven” and the excessively lengthy ”Summer’s Glory” go straight back to the tame and honestly platonic take on alternative meets post-rock mind-wanderings. I can’t for the life of me find a trace of a hook or head-turning evolution in this final cut, which brings me to raise an eyebrow at the two very contrasting faces of this band’s sound.

Regardless of that mildly puzzling fact, and of some very hit and miss passages, this album is okay for what it is. It has its noticeably good traits, but sure doesn’t blow me away as much as it could’ve, had it been pushing out of the box ever so slightly more often.

How time passes, and with Amesoeurs being disbanded, it appears Neige is using Alcest to channel even more of his post-rock and shoe gaze influences as Écailles de Lune is even more mellow and acoustic based, so it’s less black metal, but no less enthralling and captivating.

Even when Alcest delves into semi-traditional, tremolo picked, black metal riffage, like 8 minutes into languid acoustic opener “Écailles de Lune (Part I)” and the particularly elegant “Écailles de Lune (Part II)”, it’s more warm, folky and jangly like early Ulver than anything else. The otherwise dreamy “Percées de Lumière” has riffs and rasped vocals, but they are a more Amesoeurs sounding, mid paced trot.

Other than those three tracks, the rest of the album is more introspective and clean, with Neige’s improved crooning that sounds less like a female singer. And speaking of female singers I would have like to have heard Amesoeurs cohort Audrey Sylvain, who graced Souvenirs d’Un Autre Monde, help out on a track or two again.

The album’s mid point instrumental, “Abysses” seems to be the turning point for the Neige as a whole, not just the album as both the following “Solar Song” and rangy closer “Sur L’Océan Couleur de Fer” seem much more introspective, dreamy and delicate with no presence of metal, be it black, grey or green. But there is melancholic haze to everything, that’s alluring yet despondent, making the album a warm but downhearted listen from beginning to end, certainly elevating Niege and Alcest to the upper echelon of singer songwriters that should be considered artists, not just metal acts.

The “Ècailles De Lune” track listing:

1. Ècailles De Lune (part I)

2. Ècailles De Lune (part II)

3. Percées De Lumière

4. Abysses

5. Solar Song

6. Sur L’Océan Couleur De Fer

The album will be released as standard jewelcase CD, limited Digibook CD, limited box set (incl. Digibook CD, wallflag, and set of postcards; lim 1.000), and limited gatefold LP (incl. poster and available in two editions: “classic edition” (black vinyl, lim. 500) and “deep sea edition” (blue vinyl, lim. 500)). More information about the album soon!

Plying a sprightly, uplifting form of acoustic heavy, folkish metal that seems to cull from the likes of Ulver’s Bergtatt and say Tenhi, Alcest, consisting of the single entity Neige (Peste Noire, ex-Mortifera, Amesoeurs, Forgotten Woods), is a beautifully woven musical tapestry of refreshingly uplifting art

Each of the 6 fairly long tracks has its own mood and character form the merry but peacefully blastbeat canter of opener “Printemps Émeraude”, to the delightful gait of closer “Tir Nan Og”, which sounds like what Enya would sound like if she played acoustic folk metal

Speaking of Enya, meaning no pot disrespect to Neige, my only gripe with this truly beautiful album are his Garm meets Enya vocals which come across as a bit feminine, so much so when the female guest vocals of Audrey Sylvain appear on penultimate track “Sur l’autre rive je t’attendrai”, I can hardly tell the difference. Still, it adds to the forested, sylph like ambience of the album and adds and air of ethereal if androgynous melancholy to the generally warm and fuzzy atmospheres

On the whole, Alcest is yet anther superb release for Profound Lore whose quality over quantity mantra continues for this truly mesmerizing album