After six years, the French group Alcest's now legendary Le Secret EP their first foray into what is now commonly known as "shoegaze metal," gets re-recorded and re-released with the original EP in tow, creating a very unique, and beautifully unsettling 54-minute listening experience. The question of "why re-record a classic?" is answered by Neige - who sang and played all of the instruments on the original: "I was never really satisfied with the original production on it." In hearing the new versions of "Le Secret" and "Élévation," it's easy to hear why. Though he followed the arrangements almost to the letter, Neige did employ a collaborator in drummer Winterhalter here, who is more proficient on the kit. The fidelity - made possible by a bigger recording budget - is infinitely better…

On Shelter, 2014's precursor to Kodama, Alcest sounded like they had finally abandoned metal for dreamy indie pop. While the direction wasn't new - founder /multi-instrumentalist Neige had been incorporating shoegaze elements with post- and black metal since the very beginning - it seemed he and drummer Winterhalter had finally surrendered to them wholly. Apparently, two years makes a difference. Here, Neige has rediscovered dynamics and his love for metal without sacrificing his deeply aesthetic lyricism.
The title Kodama is a Japanese word meaning "tree spirit" or "echo." And true to form, this date is a conceptual offering heavily inspired by animator Hayao Miyazaki’s film Princess Mononoke, which explores the interrelationship of mankind and nature and their imbalance in post-industrial society…

If any proof were needed that anticipation was at a fever pitch for Alcest's second full-length album, it could be found in the fact that a clever leak of Écailles de Lune that made the rounds before its release was rabidly snapped up worldwide even though most of the tracks came from a compilation of Chinese black metal acts. But the fact that it was treated as the real thing shows how strong Alcest's own aesthetic mark has been made already, and Écailles de Lune makes the most of its compelling fusion of black metal's theatricality and the after-echoes of shoegaze's propensity for utterly enveloping a listener, even if bandleader Neige approached that sound unconsciously at first. The first half of the two-part title track that begins the album starts with a gentle guitar chime before the full skyscraping riff kicks in, but - instead of getting even more intense as it goes - it's happy to turn even more elegantly beautiful…

When Alcest released Kodama in 2016, it stood apart from their previous catalog in exploring the "blackgaze" metal subgenre they'd created. It was darker, more aggressive, and had more pointed edges. Earlier outings, from the groundbreaking Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde in 2007 through their breakthrough Ecailles de Lune and Les Voyages de L’ame, offered more tempered yet emotionally resonant aspects of black metal's blastbeat and tremolo-picking textural palette. The release of the infamous Shelter in 2014 saw the Bagnols-sur-Cèze duo indulge in something akin to dream pop. Although Kodama still offered the greater lyrical introspection of its predecessors, it was a much more physical approach…

Exclusive EP comes with the German magazine ROCK HARD Vol. 390 (Nov. 2019).

Even with hindsight being 20/20, it was easy to predict that France's Alcest, would eventually cast off black metal's influence on its sound. While Burzum's Filosofem provided inspiration for 2007's full-length debut, Souvenirs d'un Autre, recordings by My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, and Lush did too. Alcest may not have been the first "blackgaze" band, but until Deafheaven broke through with 2013's brilliant Sunbather, they were its most famous proponents. Shelter, Alcest's fourth album, finally transcends all of metal's musical, sonic, and aesthetic tropes. It is deeply indebted to its '90s British inspirational sources and wholly invested in the melodic sensibilities this group has displayed from the very beginning. Songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Neige (Stéphane Paut) and drummer Jean “Winterhalter” Deflandre enlisted Sigur Rós' Sundlaugin Studio, and its producer, Birgir Jón Birgisson…

Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde (2007). The relationship between heavy metal and the so-called "shoegazer" movement of the early '90s might not be apparent in writing, but with Justin Broaderick's amazing transmutation of his grinding industrial metal in Napalm Death and Godflesh into the dark, sonic bliss of his current incarnation as Jesu, it doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore. Immediately upon first listen the connection between one-man band Neige's French "black metal" roots and his current neo-psychedelic explorations under the Alcest moniker doesn't seem so far-fetched, natural even. Playing all the instruments on Alcest's debut full-length Souvenirs d'Un Autre Monde, Neige builds layers upon layers of ecstatically distorted guitars that evoke obvious comparisons to My Bloody Valentine's sonic extravaganzas and less obvious nods to the brooding minor-key post-metal of Jesu, only perhaps a bit sunnier…