Review by Gallifrey — No Exit
It was always going to come to this.
When you are the forefront of a genre, you can imagine the difficulty when you inevitably get
tired of what you've created. Historical examples come in plenty, either an artist keeps plugging
away at the same thing, most of the time missing the point, although occasionally getting some
good material in, or the artist will completely leave behind the style, maybe start a new band in
a different genre, or just take a complete tangent to the it, alienating fans, but also creating new
ones. I could take the example of a band like Marillion, who more or less invented Neo-Prog,
leaving the style in the dust after just four records, because I think they felt it was getting dry
already. And then their counterparts, IQ, who stuck with the style for their whole career,
knocking away at getting it right, but never quite getting the same as the beginning (of course,
for the sake of analogy, I'll ignore Frequency, which is obviously their best).
So Neige, frontrunner of this 'Blackgaze' genre that's been coming up for a while, has finally
decided to leave it behind, with the fourth full-length album of Alcest, his main band, Shelter. It
wasn't hard to see this coming, Les voyages de l'âme was more or less a dark Shoegaze album
with a couple of blast beats and screaming parts, and mapping the natural progressions of
musicians normally show them creating full albums based on small elements introduced in
previous records. Hopefully this means the next Alcest album will be entirely in English sung by
Neil Halstead?
Neige has little tricks that he uses, throughout all of the Alcest releases, an even over into his
other bands, like Lantlôs and Amesoeurs. You'll know the delay-ridden acoustic guitar, the low
rumble of what is often a loop of Neige singing a single note, the slightly jangly chord sound
that often comes in after the aforementioned acoustic/delay part. Theory people will know the
diminished chords and the resolutions on V and IV, just the little things that remind us of who's
composing. But what Neige has done with Shelter, by cutting off any remnants of their metal
past, black metal or not, he has essentially cut his list of tricks in two. Gone are the blast beats,
the fantastic screams. Gone are the reverb-drenched overdrive riffs that pack such a punch to
this dreamy music. And although I'm trying not to sound like a disgruntled metalhead who
wants it to be br00tal, it means that this album is mostly one-sided.
And sure, you could argue that dropping the heaviness could open Neige up to new sounds,
but honestly, this is just everything on the previous records, but without the metal. Sure, the
addition of the string parts is new, but that just piles on the dreaminess even more until it
becomes Valtari-levels of ambience. This album is more or less the same thing start to finish in
terms of mood and atmosphere.
But as much as this is a change from the Alcest I love, this is still a great record. It's slow, I'll
admit, but once you give it a few listens, even the tiny little melodies that each track develops
become glorious. Alcest have always been about emotion, in all of their albums, and Shelter is
no different. Except, unlike Écailles de lune, this isn't a depressing album that you want to listen
to alone in a darkened room and cry about. This is an uplifting record, euphoric even. The same
level of emotional saturation that Alcest have had is still there, but it's focused on happy
emotions. Glory, peace, dreams, aspirations, the haze isn't a cover over darkened emotions
anymore, it's a positive haze, like staring at the sun?
Oh yeah, I'm trying hard not to mention a certain big deal with a pink cover that people are
inevitably going to compare this to, but it's just too obvious. Alcest have gone happy, the cover
is a blurry picture of the sun with people covering it. It'll be hard to avoid mentioning the words
sun, bat, and her. But in my honest opinion, Sunbather wasn't a happy record, at least not like
Shelter is. People are inevitably going to say that Alcest are copying, or bandwagoning with,
Deafheaven, with the concept and idea behind this album, so I feel we need to mention the fact
that Deafheaven wouldn't exist without Alcest. Moving on?
I've a had a huge case of the lead single effect with "Opale", a track that I didn't think much of
when its video was released, but now can't get enough of. The lead hook, the atmospheric
aaahs and oohs that the album opens with in "Wings" may be insanely simple, but somehow
Neige creates a beautifully uplifting atmosphere with such a simple motif, which is more or less
the essence of Alcest's music. The same thing happens in "Voix Sereines", another of my
favourite tracks, with that simple little motif that even a child could think of, but Neige uses his
voice and his pedalboard to bring it to utter glory. But I have to comment on the lead riff of
"Opale", which I'm still not convinced on. It just feels slightly off. I really like the notes and the
progression, but the rhythm is weird and off-putting, somehow sounding like it's in an odd
signature when it's really in straight 4/4. I thought that it would grow on me and I would get used
to it, but it still bugs me 10 listens later.
The other highlight track here is obviously going to be "Away", Alcest's first English song,
featuring Slowdive singer Neil Halstead. On my first listen to Shelter, I have to admit that it got a
bit boring, as pleasant and pretty as it was. The songs just mix into a haze of ambient vocals
and delay and reverb and (new on this record) strings. But then Away comes, with Neil's rather
regular vocal delivery, speaking in English. Now, I have to admit my lack of education that,
despite knowing about them for years, I have never actually listened to Slowdive (although I
know exactly what I'm doing when this review is done), but the match of this simple voice with
Alcest's dreamy instrumentation is nearly perfect. Neige's distant background vocals lift up the
chorus to great heights, and with this song situated right around the point when you start to get
bored of the same sound, it's nearly perfect in reminding you that Alcest are still moving
forward.
Although I enjoy this record, I feel in terms of the sheer number of great riffs and motifs
throughout Écailles De Lune and Les Voyages, this is always going to pale in comparison. The
mood of the music is new and fresh and wonderful for Alcest, but I think in terms of the quantity
of riffs that I say are amazing, this isn't their best. And I think, honestly, that's the only reason
that I believe this is the weakest Alcest album yet, simply because of the quantity of great ideas.
I love it, but taking the perspective of others, I can see how many who are not Alcest fanboys
may find this 'boring'. I really hope Neige continues the happier mood onto further albums, but
he really should develop some more great melodies to base the atmosphere on. Like the final
track, 10-minute "Délivrance". Ever since "Eccailes De Lune", the idea of a 10-minute Alcest
track has been in the minds of everyone, wanting another thundering epic. But Délivrance just
sort of meanders, holding together its main theme in waves of ambience. It's pleasant music,
but the fact that the 9 minutes of "Eccailes De Lune Part I" had more riffs than half of this album
really shows how drawn out these pieces are becoming.
Shelter may not be a perfect record. It lacks the sheer quantity of great riffs and melodies that
the past Alcest albums had, but I'm definitely loving the happier side. Allegedly this is the first
Alcest record where Neige has stopped writing about his 'experience' (what it exactly is is still
unclear), when he was a child, representing a moving forward of Alcest's music into something
new. Even though I think that Les Voyages is their best record, I could definitely see where
people were coming from when they said it was trying to recreate past glory, and Shelter is
most certainly a big step forward. It does get a bit empty sometimes, and a few of the songs, for
a significant amount of time, are just pleasant ambience, but Opale and Away are definitely
amongst Alcest's best tracks.
7.7
Originally written for my Facebook page/blog: www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog