France's Alcest represents a rare point of inflection in heavy metal. The solo project of Neige began around the turn of the century as a raw black metal band before pivoting into the ethereal entity that glimmers in metal's spotlight today. In Alcest's pivot from another dime-a-dozen black metal band, they invited a softer glow to one of metal's most abrasive genres. They also invited a number of other bands to follow suit.
While Deafheaven popularized blackened shoegaze, France’s Alcest planted the stylistic seeds. Stéphane “Neige” Paut has spent the past two decades refining his amalgamation of palpable beauty and harrowing melancholy. His creative journey reached a crucial milestone with 2016’s immaculate opus Kodama, which suddenly put Alcest at the forefront of the scene it inadvertently founded. Nuclear Blast Records took notice. As a followup to a landmark album, Spiritual Instinct has a lot to live up to.
The trajectory of Alcest over the last decade or so has ebbed and flowed to some extent. They built their signature sound across Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde and Écailles de Lune and by Shelter, they completely washed their blackened tendencies. 2016's Kodama saw those elements return in grand fashion. Spiritual Instinct follows the blackened resurgence Kodama began-building upon it, slightly tipping the scales in black metal's favor.
The shadow of Kodama looms over Spiritual Instinct, but that’s hardly a bad thing. Recorded with the same producer in the same studio, the album’s production is just as incredible.
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An Exploration of Themes
"…In Spiritual Instinct, there are questions about the meaning of life and the possible existence of something else; something divine," Neige states through a press release. "The struggle to be the best person for yourself and the people around you, to evolve as a soul. The unease certainly translates into a darker and more acute tone.
Throughout their career as Alcest and helped by gradual fluctuations in style, French multi-instrumentalist Neige and drummer Winterhalter have been cultivating a deep sense of beauty and unfiltered sentiment. An exploration of sonic poetry in the vein of The Lake Poets, unmistakably filled with a romantic ache, a longing, and an expression of beauty and infatuation with the world so deep it hurts.
Compared to 2016’s wonderful Kodama, Spiritual Instinct is an album that is embalmed in lighter tones and motifs, charmingly optimistic against Neige’s often morose themes. Where Kodama was overwhelmingly mournful and draped in hazy overtones, Alcest here embrace a more direct musical approach right from the start.
Track Highlights and Musical Style
Historically, Alcest has taken several minutes to build over the opening songs of their albums-like the title track to Kodama. "Les Jardins De Minuit," however, wastes almost no time in delving into kaleidoscopic tremolo. The sharp tone carries throughout much of the record's entirety.
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There is a point during the first minute of “Les Jardins De Minuit,” the opening track of Alcest’s sixth LP Spiritual Instinct, when the French duo’s stylish cohesion of shoegaze, black metal, and pop elements reaches a zenith. A digging, revolving bass line, shy, fluttering tremolos, and ethereal vocal harmonies all surge into a striking atmospheric black metal melody. It’s a moving instant, one that is candidly emotional yet eschewing of kitsch and banal melodrama. Instead, it feels earned and lived in.
On the aforementioned “Les Jardins De Minuit,” dispersed vocals, punctuating blast beats, and sharp tremolos mesh with clean and growled vocals-evoking in many ways the band’s early records-before a break and goosebumps-inducing leads guide us through an instrumental, faintly progressive part.
Opener “Les Jardins De Minuit” uses Jean “Winterhalter” Deflandre’s indomitable drum tone and Niege’s transcendent vocals and guitar playing to a terrific effect. The song centers on two main motifs; triumphant singing and pained strums over a ripping blast beat and a noticeably more metallic groove. Though more immediate and hard-hitting than ever, Alcest doesn’t sacrifice its penchant for atmosphere.
Single “Protection” incorporates that increased impact into the gorgeous sonics on which the band has built its reputation. Its syncopated riffing brings unprecedented aggression, which complements Neige’s angelic singing. His soaring vocal melodies blend with his guitar lines, keeping the album deeply mystical and heartrendingly emotional.
"Night collapses as a / Suspended tapestry / And I hear / Roars within / And I struggle / And fight / The shadows / Piercing us / Like arrows,” Neige sings (in French) on “Protection,” but despite the heaviness of his words, the feeling they project is not that of mourning nor surrender.
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Neige functions more like a traditional lead singer on “Sapphire,” molding the song into a beefier take on dream-pop. Within a less-is-more chord progression and a rock-solid half-time beat, his melodic intuition takes the spotlight. Much like Sigur Rós, meaning emanates from the potent feelings he generates. Neige’s arrangements flicker like the inner fire he yearns for and strives to preserve. In this way, Spiritual Instinct maintains its inception as an extension of Neige.
The album's mid-section-"Sapphire" and "L'ile des Morts"-though, is arguably the album's strongest point. "Sapphire" has an almost off-kilter melody between the low-end rhythm and Niege's vocal delivery. "L'ile des Morts," meanwhile, taps into a billowing groove that ultimately erupts into Neige and Winterhalter's best instrumental performances on the record. As the nine-minute track approaches the middle third, it begins to play out as the album's crescendo featuring.
From a foundation of muted synth, “L’Ile Des Morts” provides a compelling contrast between proggy time signatures and singalong melodies. The song’s changes are as natural as they are cathartic, bringing tumbling blast beats, massive crescendos and exhilarating riff changes into an emphatic statement. The same could be said about how the rumbling bass of “Le Miroir” gives way to a wistful guitar lick and celestial synth patches. More of an ambient piece, the song’s monolithic build ups are no less engrossing. Beyond tantalizing with effects and volume, Neige thoughtfully elaborates on his ideas.
Over the six long, but never overwrought songs, the duo maintain this straightforward songwriting and baroque playing approach, one which is often a synthesis of various elements from Alcest’s discography. This includes the more aggressive echoes of black metal, that they had at times forgotten, but which are now woven around a delicate structure. A musical construct that has more in common with avant-pop than with anything else.
But where “Sapphire” is often crunchy and groovy and “L’Île Des Morts” swiftly turns into a rocking and fluid affair, it’s the closing two cuts that stand out. Observed from just the right angle, somewhere between nostalgia and hope, the title song “Spiritual Instinct” seems to live in a world of its own, apart from the rest of the album. As the music turns towards ritualistic and melancholy patterns, it becomes a counterpoint to the preceding material. It leaves us with a sense of ambiguity, of belonging to a dream within a dream in which occasional glimpses of hymnic, passionate singing try to wake us up or lull us into an even deeper sleep.
Clocking in at 41 minutes with only six tracks, this album I made for getting lost in the music. The title track, which closes the album, seems to come too soon until you realize how much you experienced beforehand. Neige layers his voice for some impeccable harmonies as ethereal chords and echoing tom-toms explode with grandeur. The song’s accessible chords and relatively standard arrangement still overflow with purifying bliss.
Spiritual Instinct makes perfect sense for this season in Alcest’s career. The album will prove much more palatable for metal-heads, while maintaining cross-pollination with shoegaze and post-rock. More than eye-catching genre combinations, Neige values his songs as a reflection of his soul-searching.
A Testament to Artistic Integrity
When I reviewed Kodama, I wrote that “this is music caught between worlds, between the material and immaterial, but ultimately a part of its own universe” and “a clear step forward for Neige and his vision.” Spiritual Instinct is no different as it presents another snapshot of Neige’s constantly evolving artistic vision. It is a piece of music that is both a testament to Alcest’s artistic integrity and an excellent new entry in an oeuvre that stands alone in the genre.
For the better part of two decades, Neige has been fearless in his project's musical endeavors. He and Winterhalter have reshaped a genre an often rigid genre as it pertains to stylistic decisions. For all the acclaim the band has received over the years, to return once more and deliver a nearly flawless album is sensational.
While Alcest spurred on a whole style, the various blackgaze copycats failed to understand that it was all about Psyche, and not Soma that made Alcest so remarkable.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, Spiritual Instinct is another jewel in the crown of Alcest.I think this might now be my favorite Alcest album (or at least up there with Ecailles de Lune). Before, I gave it an 85, but it is literally perfect.
For the same reasons I loved their sophomore record, it's executed like gold with Spiritual Instinct being really focused on guitar work, which is at times relaxing and at times punchy. Alcest has slowly become one of my favorite bands, I just love the way they approach Blackgaze, it's awesome. They are the best in the genre and the Post-Metal genre as well.
And they also have the most consistent incredible discography of any band I've heard. The only bands that I think come close to their incredible consistency in quality, are Deftones and Radiohead.
I think as someone who listens to this for the first time, you do need to give it more time and more listens. But now that I've been familiar with this album for quite a while, I can safely say that it's an absolute masterpiece. I can't praise this enough, there are ZERO flaws with this thing, it's perfect, absolutely perfect.
God Sapphire is literally one of the best songs ever created, had that song on replay for a year straight. I wasn't too sure about the rest of the album at first, but listening to it again, I honestly love it.
I originally did get familiar with Alcest through Sapphire, which is still in my top 10 songs of all time, and one of the greatest musical moments I've ever heard. Then L'ile des morts is another absolutely beautiful song, when the guitars come in at around 3:18 with the screaming vocals and one of the greatest guitar melody progressions ever, it makes for such an emotional and impactful moment that really makes the song one of my favorites from Alcest. An absolute masterclass.
And finally, the title track... wow. This album couldn't have possibly ended on a better note. Again, the GUITAR WORK as I keep saying, is absolutely magnificent, some of the best guitar work I have heard in my entire life. I mean just those guitars at the very end and in the middle... They take me to another planet. Truly a spiritual experience. And I'm always all about the vibes, which no band does better than Alcest.