ALCEST: Spiritual Instinct (POST ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

While he seemed eternally linked to the legendary Prophecy Productions, a label that released its first album "Souvenirs d'un autre monde" twelve years ago and in which it had its rightful place, it is with astonishment that we now find Alcest in the stable of the powerful Nuclear Blast. If the choice to contribute to a catalogue that is more "metal" than Prophecy's may seem surprising to the French, at least it confirms the commercial and artistic aura from which the latter now benefit. Does this alliance with the Teutonic mastodon also mean that Neige and Winterhalter have decided to reconnect with their (distant) extreme roots?

A quick listening to "Spiritual instinct" is enough to reassure (or not) those who might have feared that the duo would sell their soul on the altar of a black metal with which they have hardly cultivated any ties for a long time. Alcest remains this unique entity that has established its signature, both airy and raging, soaked in a serene melancholy and roaring with a delicate force. In fact, this sixth journey, which has the appearance of a spiritual quest, is a continuation of his predecessors and of "Kodama" (2016) in particular. The sphinx that sits in the centre of its sleeve illustrates all the ambiguity of an art that is constantly torn between light and darkness.

Thus, it would be convenient to claim that the band is continuing its evolution towards even more atmospheric sounds. But all along, "Spiritual Instinct" is corroded by ferruginous cysts (here abrasive guitar flows, there howled vocals) that disturb the reading and make it a much more complex album than it seems. The fact that its realization was difficult does not surprise us so much that his compositions present an extremely elaborate stratigraphy. Each of them has something of a painting whose multiple layers can only be distinguished little by little, after many dives into its intimacy. As such, the song testifies to this richness at the same time as a never denied requirement, alternately clear or skinned, sometimes lulled by feminine spectral melodies.

Built on a compact architecture that only slightly exceeds forty minutes, "Spiritual Instinct" pulsates with a muted intensity that spreads beneath the surface of these six tracks of admirable density. "Les Jardins de Minuit" launches the listening in the most beautiful of ways, summing up in itself the approach of the French who, with a rare mastery, oscillate between diaphanous beauty and unbridled power. The most intimate metal is coupled with an abrasive black art. After a heavy starter, "Protection" flies very high towards celestial spheres but still rumbling with a dark pulse.

If "Sapphire" is more linear in its finery but no less exciting, "L'Île des Morts" is back with the feverish strength of the first two tracks, a long and stormy journey that runs along a winding path torn between desperate darkness and vesperal gleams but always bathed in winter moods. Its stockier format does not exempt "Le Miroir" from a wealth of writing and arrangements with its multiple vocal layers and its slow progression. As for the track from which this album takes its name, it is both pulsating and full of hope, dominated by the fragile song of the master of the place to which its polluted projections soaked in rust are opposed.

With "Spiritual Instinct", Alcest appears at the top of its art. The offering is in his image, vaporous, elusive and yet marked in his flesh by a cold and impetuous melancholy. - Official website

ALCEST

SPIRITUAL INSTINCT

NUCLEAR BLAST

POST ROCK