Alcest "Ecailles De Lune" LP (Color Vinyl)

Alcest took an audible step towards their black metal roots with their sophomore full-length "Écailles de Lune" ("Moon Scales") without losing any of the trademarks that had evolved on their debut album "Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde". The French post-black metal pioneers created a sound of lucent, dreamlike quality and otherworldly beauty that has equally defined them and been refined by them ever since. In musical terms, Alcest amalgamate calm, semi-acoustic passages, repetitive, hypnotic patterns, and captivating melodies with outbursts of harsh riffing and aggressive drumming. The same contrasting and complementing effect is used by band founder and guitarist Neige for his vocals. Clean singing that is morphing back and forth between a warm and darker tone and a gentle higher pitch occasionally gets swept aside by despairing shrieks and furious black voices - only to flowingly return like an unstoppable tide. "For this album, I was especially inspired by the sea, the energy, and