Now streaming on PF
http://pitchfork.com/advance/312-shelter/
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 13 January 2014 19:32 (ten years ago) link
after the understandable-ish thinkpieces that come out around this album (like the Stereogum one) can we all agree that as of like Feb. 1 we will just never use "metal" to describe Alcest again? i don't care that they're not metal, but i mean this album puts the nail in that coffin rather forcefully.
― alpine static, Monday, 13 January 2014 19:36 (ten years ago) link
I look forward to avoiding all those hand wringing think pieces
― Pale Smiley Face (dandydonweiner), Monday, 13 January 2014 20:36 (ten years ago) link
I decided a long time ago that anything made by people who like metal and listened to by a majority of at least a sizable minority of people who like metal would be metal. That definition has served me well to date so I see no reason to abandon it now.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Monday, 13 January 2014 20:45 (ten years ago) link
what about the backlash from people who always hated them? they are allover facebook taking great glee that they "arent metal"
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 13 January 2014 20:45 (ten years ago) link
One wonders why they go to the alcest page to say it
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 13 January 2014 20:46 (ten years ago) link
I'm enjoying this new album, but I don't quite get all the Slowdive comparisons.
― MarkoP, Monday, 13 January 2014 20:46 (ten years ago) link
"alcest are not metal theyre hipster indie" comments everywhere. anything indie or indeed non metal is "hipster" to those types btw
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 13 January 2014 20:47 (ten years ago) link
Is it because they're the goto reference point for anything dreamy and shoegazey?
― MarkoP, Monday, 13 January 2014 20:48 (ten years ago) link
people got bored saying MBV/Ride
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 13 January 2014 20:54 (ten years ago) link
It helps that Neil Halstead actually sings on it...
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 13 January 2014 21:00 (ten years ago) link
the metal vs. not metal argument is going to turn out at least as interesting as the punk vs. not punk argument.
― Pale Smiley Face (dandydonweiner), Monday, 13 January 2014 21:17 (ten years ago) link
yeah i'm not saying it's this exhilarating argument or anything, but given the success of Deafheaven last year (and esp. last month) you can see why ppl who need to create content would write something.
― alpine static, Monday, 13 January 2014 21:55 (ten years ago) link
then haters gotta reply and we have to suffer both!
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 13 January 2014 21:56 (ten years ago) link
it doesn't matter whether it's metal or not it just matters if it sucks. people not wanting to address that it sucks will write THE PURISTS ARE ANGRY! pieces because it distracts people from how this music is fuckin boring
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 13 January 2014 23:42 (ten years ago) link
it is boring, but in a very elegant way
― call all destroyer, Monday, 13 January 2014 23:48 (ten years ago) link
yes. late-bourgeois metal
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 04:19 (ten years ago) link
so does it work as ambient?I am delighted that this band stopped having those lame Dragonlance via Vertigo comix style sleeves.
― brimstead, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 04:54 (ten years ago) link
on further inspection, i'll revise that assessment to nth tier MTG card art
― brimstead, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 04:55 (ten years ago) link
god the metal community has been dealing with a lot of brutal existential dilemmas, eh? Are true schizms in the metalverse even possible in the www age (diffusion of styles/lister preferences)? Metal fan community to diffusive in terms of taste? Sorry, this probably sounds hella patronizing..
― brimstead, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 05:01 (ten years ago) link
people have been writing a lot of reviews/thinkpieces about that exact q, actually, that seems to be the primary function of these crossover releases - to generate "what does this mean for metal?" ruminations
it is somewhat interesting, I can't lie, that 80s/90s nostalgia as a driving force has resulted in this moment where what metal bands are nostalgic about is old Curve records instead of old Bathory records...but really nowhere near as interesting as people wanting to squabble about "purists!!" seem to think. there are way, way fewer people making purist objections than there are people basing their assessments on what the purists are purported to be thinking imo
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 10:32 (ten years ago) link
feel like Ulver might be relevant to this discussion
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 10:40 (ten years ago) link
probably a thread in itself as a lot of people dont like alcest so wont read this
xp
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 10:44 (ten years ago) link
for my evil faux-purist purposes it's better if these discussions are relegated to threads no-one reads
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 10:58 (ten years ago) link
Listened to this album this morning on the train. It's great. Here's the thing: I like it so much, I have no interest in exploring the band's back catalog. This album is perfect as it is; I am very happy to let it live as a shimmering, singular object without ever bothering to learn "how they got there."
― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 15:10 (ten years ago) link
what i got out of my listen yesterday was that the guitars sounded really good, there were some noticeable nods to post-rock and emo that i was into, but the package as a whole is just a little bit....lame? idk, there's a chance i come around and it becomes a record i really like. the stakes just seem a little too low atm.
re: thinkpieces and influences and all that, i'm just going to assume those are only interesting questions (as they specifically pertain to this record) to ppl who never heard the amesoeurs ep. because this sounds a lot more like that than it does any of the old alcest records.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 15:18 (ten years ago) link
the last song on this is gorgeous
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 15:33 (ten years ago) link
The interesting part of the metal/not-metal question for me is whether it's possible to hear this album (assuming previous engagement with Alcest) without thinking of metal or having its metal provenance colour your experience. Can you listen to it just like you would a Curve album, where metal isn't even relevant, or is the 'not-metal' lacuna always there also? It'd be different if it constituted a complete break with an older style, but it's obviously continuous with what Alcest have done already. We aren't in some new world, it's still Neige's fairy land where black metal is part of the geography, even if this time around it's unexpressed.
― jmm, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 15:37 (ten years ago) link
diamonddave otm
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 15:41 (ten years ago) link
The amesoeurs album was wonderful
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 15:55 (ten years ago) link
yeah i was a big fan
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 15:57 (ten years ago) link
I know what aerosmith is getting at earlier with a genre comparison and why people keep saying it since but the Curve mentions keep throwing me, I admit -- Curve to my mind, more so in the earlier days, are overlapping layers of guitars that just sound contemptuously angry, industrial/EBM leaning rhythms, and pissed-off/feminist lyrics coolly delivered. Shelter's way more on the agog Slowdive/Sigur Ros tip.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 16:29 (ten years ago) link
Ned I gotta be honest I don't really differentiate between all the NME one-word band name guitar bands of the early 90s, they're all pretty much one band to me
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:23 (ten years ago) link
xpost I'm not really getting the Curve comparisons either
I'm getting a bit of a metal vibe from the new Alcest, in that it's awash in 6+ minute epics with multiple crescendos, as opposed to the noisy pop side of shoegaze. IOW, it's closer to Ride's "Dreams Burn Down" than anything resembling Slowdive.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 12:09 (ten years ago) link
yeah I'm getting a slight GY!BE/ASMZ vibe from this
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 12:33 (ten years ago) link
I suppose that's the thing; it might not sound very metal but as it's a metal band making the album the approach is still gonna be that of a metal band.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 13:46 (ten years ago) link
love love love the Ruines Humaines EP by Amesoeurs. there is something irresistible about its looseness. it's as if the band could just one-hundred percent wig out at any second and it wouldn't matter because it would be the natural culmination of all those loose nerves anyway. the full-length was a bit manicured in its unhinged-ness by comparison. still excellent though.
― charlie h, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 13:48 (ten years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 13:55 (ten years ago) link
first impressions of new album: pretty, but they've somehow diluted the traits of their signature sound and devolved into something that's like the happy medium of a whole bunch of other bands.
― charlie h, Friday, 17 January 2014 04:18 (ten years ago) link
First listen and this is very pleasant. Nice, but like a lot of folks I feel something is lacking. And "Away" should never have been on here. Perfectly fine tune, but it sounds like a different project.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 17 January 2014 05:19 (ten years ago) link
holy shit, this album
this is a fall-off?????? omg
― SHAUN (DJP), Friday, 24 January 2014 23:07 (ten years ago) link
YEAH Dan how dare you like it.
(My interview with Neige should be running next week.)
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 24 January 2014 23:17 (ten years ago) link
I'm always amazed by the "not metal" accusations and reviews (especially folk and ambient spinoff bands), but I have seen fans of other genres negatively review something for not being in the genre they expected it to be.
Why are 70s and 80s metal bands allowed to have some blatantly non metal tracks? Does anyone scream "NOT METAL!" when they hear Black Sabbath's "Fluff" or Judas Priest's "Epitaph" or any number of other lighter tracks by classic metal bands? Then there is things like Peccatum where only a low percentage of Lost In Reverie is metal. Love that album.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 26 January 2014 23:35 (ten years ago) link
i know people who hate vol iv because of changes (seen someone say it on ilm too)
― ۩, Sunday, 26 January 2014 23:48 (ten years ago) link
did these guys always sound like The Sundays or is that a recent development
― SHAUN (DJP), Monday, 27 January 2014 15:37 (ten years ago) link
It's ironic that Sigur Ros decided last year that all this precious, pretty, shimmering candy floss was an artistical dead end, and abruptly went for something a lot meatier - exactly at the moment that the metal dudes of Alcest and Les Discrets are diving headlong into it.
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:13 (ten years ago) link
I'm always amazed by the "not metal" accusations
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:18 (ten years ago) link
Actually this reminds me of Hammock
― SHAUN (DJP), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:20 (ten years ago) link
an artistical dead end
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:26 (ten years ago) link
naw you had it right the first time
― joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:46 (ten years ago) link
Haven't received mine yet, has anyone heard it?
― Cosmic Slop, Monday, 3 October 2016 16:20 (seven years ago) link
I think this might be the time to start liking Alcest again
― imago,
WORD UP
http://www.tigerstrypes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/download-2.jpg
― van smack, Monday, 3 October 2016 23:55 (seven years ago) link
Really good and a great change of pace. It rocks a lot harder than the last one.
― skip, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 04:22 (seven years ago) link
New one is exactly what I was expecting but I was hoping for, idk, a little more. I mean I like it fine but when I hear a band treading water this much I can't help but find it slightly offputting.
― ultros ultros-ghali, Sunday, 9 October 2016 16:40 (seven years ago) link
The three tracks from this that are available on Spotify are really, really good.
― ¶ (DJP), Thursday, 27 October 2016 18:45 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, another fine album from them.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 October 2016 19:02 (seven years ago) link
Alcest is somehow becoming one of my favorite bands without me noticing
― 80's hair metal , and good praise music ! (DJP), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 14:46 (three years ago) link
New Alcest track, "L'envol". Full album out in June.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haQ_zgn9ck4
https://alcest.bandcamp.com/album/lenvol
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 23 February 2024 20:07 (six months ago) link
Listening to an advance of the full album and it's a damn treat.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 24 April 2024 03:28 (four months ago) link
almost feel like it's cheating to put your metal in my shoegaze and vice versa but this rules
can only assume that there are other people doing this sort of thing; tell me about them pls
― mookieproof, Saturday, 29 June 2024 05:33 (two months ago) link