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Alcest (/al.sɛst/) is a French blackgaze act formed in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Occitanie in 2000 by multi-instrumentalist Neige (Stéphane Paut).
It was originally conceived as a solo project, though it would eventually take on the form of a full band as Aegnor (now known as La Sale Famine de Valfunde) and Argoth, with whom Neige played in Peste Noire, joined the fray and released a four-track demo entitled Tristesse hivernale in 2001. This demo was a more straightforward black metal affair, much different from what would happen next. Read more on Last.fm
(No review.)
This latest Alcest effort is a bit hard to categorize as black metal becomes fragmented, but it’s really more like a shoegaze record with some fun, faster parts added it. It drags a bit at times (as do many shoegaze records), but it has a great flow overall—and it seems to tip its hat to the post-rock ‘soundtrack to life’ mentality.