(2014) Alcest - Shelter [FLAC] {100.XY}

Wikipedia:
Alcest is a French shoegazing band/musical project (formerly a black metal band) from Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France, founded and led by Neige (Stéphane Paut). It began in 2000 as a black metal solo project by Neige, soon a trio, but following the release of their first demo in 2001, band members Aegnor and Argoth left the band, leaving Neige as the sole member.
This marked a change in style, as Alcest's subsequent releases have more often been described as shoegazing mixing numerous rock and metal influences, including black metal and post-metal. In 2009 the ex-Peste Noire's drummer Winterhalter (now in Les Discrets) joined Alcest's studio line-up, after eight years with Neige as the sole full time member. Since its creation, Alcest has released three studio albums.


Review:
Like Opeth’s Heritage or Darkthrone’s The Cult is Alive, Alcest’s Shelter is the sound of a band that has undergone a decisive yet inevitable metamorphosis. In all these cases, extreme metal was the chrysalis or catalyst; what emerged wasn’t the same as what came before. Opeth shed death metal for bucolic prog; Darkthrone bent black metal toward d-beat crust. Neither came as a total surprise, and neither does Shelter. Alcest have been slowly turning away from the corrosive, ambient metal of their early work—a sound that’s influenced many, most notably Deafheaven—toward an unbroken dreamscape of cushiony shoegaze. Shelter marks that clean break. The French outfit’s fourth full-length is a statement of soft-spoken apostasy that’s unflinching in its resolve. And somewhat less than stellar in its execution.
The friction between ethereality and aggression is what made Alcest’s prior albums, and in particular 2010’s Écailles de Lune, so gripping. Quiet, chiming guitars meshed with thunderous riffs, and liquid-nitrogen synths bled into a bath of warm, soft vocals. Neige, the driving force behind Alcest, has allowed that friction to dissipate. What’s left feels wrung-out. Shelter’s eight songs are among the prettiest Neige has ever composed, with the happy-sad chords and bell-like hook of “Opale” bearing an unmistakable to resemblance to Chapterhouse’s “Breather”. But even Chapterhouse, among the wispiest of shoegaze groups, put more propulsion and surprise into their songs. Throughout Shelter that delicacy never lets up. Some tracks, like “La Nuit Marche Avec Moi” and “Voix Sereines”, muster enough determination to step on a distortion pedal. Beyond that, every element—from Neige’s whispery melodies to the shimmering sameness of the guitar—sticks unswervingly to the path of least resistance.
Shelter leaves no room for the questioning of its shoegaze credentials. Slowdive’s Neil Halstead is brought aboard to sing the lead vocals on “Away”, yet the shoegaze founding father sounds more deflated than dreamy as he moans through the song’s vaguely chamber-folk arrangement. Something is supposed to be evoked here: bemused melancholy, maybe, or wistful longing, or pensive detachment. Whatever it is, it never coheres or connects. At least it’s a break in the fog, even if it only offers a slightly bluer hue of featureless prettiness. The album was recorded in Iceland at Sigur Rós’ studio, Sundlaugin, with Sigur Rós producer Birgir Jón Birgisson, but it doesn’t sound appreciably different than Alcest’s previous output—let alone allow for much internal variation.
The 10-minute closer “Délivrance” nearly reaches escape velocity, a listless spiral of gossamer pop with brief bursts of distorted lucidity. It too collapses under its own lack of weight. Neige has stated in the past that Alcest is a project devoted to realizing in song his visions of otherworldly fantasy and wonder. In chasing that devotion, the songs themselves have been cast adrift. Still capable of great feats of mood and beauty, Alcest have transformed themselves, although not always in the best way. They’ve gone from being a remarkably innovative, influential, and singular force in a subgenre they helped create to being just another shoegaze act. That doesn’t make Shelter a bad album. As an aural analgesic, it goes down smooth and numbs what it needs to. But instead of tearing open the passageway between this world and whatever lies beyond, it shrinks that portal to the size of a keyhole.





Track List:

CD1
01. Wings
02. Opale
03. La Nuit Marche Avec Moi
04. Voix Sereines
05. L'Eveil Des Muses
06. Shelter
07. Away
08. Deliverance

CD2
01. Into The Waves


Summary:
Country: France
Genre: Indie, Post-Rock & Post-Punk, Post-Rock, shoegaze,


Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~900 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits