When Alcest’s debut LP Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde dropped in 2007, no one in the metal world had heard anything quite like it. Neige, then the French band’s only member, had the audacity to stand with one foot firmly in the perceived hipster mecca of shoegaze and the other somewhere on the hillside from the cover of Burzum’s Filosofem. The album sent shockwaves through its ostensible genre that culminated in the inane (and still active) debate over what it means to be black metal and whether positivist philosophy and tremolo picking can peaceably coexist.
Two albums and five years later, Alcest are a fixture in the international black metal scene. Neige, full-time drummer Winterhalter, and session members Zero and Fursy Teyssier have toured the world twice and are about to embark on a third trip. 2009’s Écailles de Lune was heralded as a crossover masterpiece, beardy dudes bring their non-hesher girlfriends to Alcest shows, members of the corpse-painting community remain outraged, and all is as it is meant to be. The freshness that initially made Neige’s most personal project relevant has all dried up. The release of Les Voyages de L’Âme forces us to decide if Alcest music is good even when they’re no longer interesting.
