25 Days Of Metal 2012: #18 Alcest – Les voyages de l’âme

December 8th, 2012

Jordan Munson

Rather than counting down the days until we can celebrate Christmas, this year we’re bringing you a series of metal posts will be celebrating the countdown until we don’t have to be inundated with Christmas music and decorations everywhere. To coincide with this countdown we’ll be posting our top 25 metal (and metal-ish) albums of 2012. 25 days of hell, 25 rad metal albums to make up for it.

At this point, Alcest are barely metal in any way, having journeyed far from their black metal beginnings to a foray in shoegaze. Throughout Les voyages de l’âme there are moments that harken back to their more metal roots, but more often than that the slow, droning cacophony of shoegaze is the driving force of the music. Les voyages de l’âme can’t really be described as much other than a beautifully morose musical journey that lasts for about fifty minutes, but seems to go by much faster. Song after song goes by and it’s very easy to get lost in the incredibly lush textures, especially those that begin songs like “Autre Temps” that are filled with ghastly choir backing. Alcest don’t have many direct musical peers at this point given their unusual blend of black metal and shoegaze, making Les voyages de l’âme all the more special. It serves as a perfect transition between lo-fi black metal and traditional shoegaze, having humongous crossover and gateway potential.