it is boring, but in a very elegant way
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
look, I hate Sigur Ros just as much as the next right-thinking man but this blatant "I hate it when guitars sound like a wall of pretty" nonsense will not stand
― SHAUN (DJP), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:49 (ten years ago) link
Siegbran says "Don't particularly want to dress up as this strawman, but you know...it was not that crazy to have preferred Michael Jordan playing in the NBA instead of dicking around in Minor League baseball."
I'm still not sure what you mean. Surely people should pursue whatever direction they feel themless compelled to go in, especially if they are going to stagnate in what they were previously doing.
I dont know if the naysayer concensus on Alcest is whether their old metal stuff was better or that going into something associated with indie is the real transgression.
Didnt that Carcass frontman do a country album? Anyone heard it?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 January 2014 18:17 (ten years ago) link
yes
not exactly a classic in its field
― joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 30 January 2014 19:58 (ten years ago) link
hahaha
― SHAUN (DJP), Thursday, 30 January 2014 20:01 (ten years ago) link
I cannot speak for the naysayers but Alcest was excellent in what they did, and yes they stagnated a bit lately. This record is a logical change at this point, it's a record they needed to make. And I like it! Even though it's not as good as most of the other stuff mentioned on this thread (Ride, Slowdive, Sigur Ros, Hammock, etc). However, I'm not really interested in any more Alcest records like this. I'd rather have them explore the (pretty big) area between metal and postrock than become just another bunch of dudes with a volume pedal, delay and a reverb box.
― Siegbran, Thursday, 30 January 2014 22:14 (ten years ago) link
Siegbran says "Alcest was excellent in what they did"
Do you mean the pre-Souvenirs stuff? I was under the impression they had several pure black metal albums but I just checked and saw that Souvenirs is their first album. I thought it was a backlash against a previously established metal band like Ulver.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 January 2014 17:11 (ten years ago) link
Le Secret ep was their only black metal release.
― ۩, Friday, 31 January 2014 18:25 (ten years ago) link
...if you don't count _Tristesse Hivernale_
― Wandering Boy Poet, Saturday, 1 February 2014 10:55 (ten years ago) link
Neige did/does plenty of "pure BM" in other bands/projects. But no I didn't mean the pre-Souvenirs BM stuff, it isn't terrible but that wasn't what I think makes Alcest a great band.
Anyway I guess my point is that while they're of course perfectly allowed to make that beautiful post-rock album they always wanted to make (and hire Sigur Ros' producer to record it), I feel it's a bit of a shame for a unique band like Alcest.
― Siegbran, Saturday, 1 February 2014 16:40 (ten years ago) link
Did anyone see them on the current tour btw?
― Siegbran, Saturday, 1 February 2014 17:05 (ten years ago) link
giving this a listen for the first time...lol it sounds like Biffy Clyro
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Sunday, 2 February 2014 09:34 (ten years ago) link
I'm quite happy for these guys to leave behind any and all black metal elements, I just wish this new one had a bit more bite to it. It's sort of easy to ignore in a way that the previous material wasn't, at least to me. It does have some truly glorious moments on it though. And it sounds nothing like Biffy Clyro!
― ultros ultros-ghali, Sunday, 2 February 2014 17:48 (ten years ago) link
Sounded a hell of a lot better on headphones on a nice walk up to Nunhead Reservoir earlier tbf.
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Sunday, 2 February 2014 19:54 (ten years ago) link
Saw them last night, great show. I like the new stuff, although I'd like it to be a temporary direction rather than the way the band is now. New stuff sounded more 'muscular' live, & having the old tracks scattered throughout helped overall. If you liked them before the current tour isn't going to be the one that makes you climb offboard.
― Wandering Boy Poet, Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:13 (ten years ago) link
I saw them in August at an outdoor festival where they were the least 'heavy' act by far (of some 60-odd bands), but
― Siegbran, Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:54 (ten years ago) link
I guess they're a lot more suited to small clubs.
― Siegbran, Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:55 (ten years ago) link