Credits:

Alcest

Description:

If any proof were needed that anticipation was at a fever pitch for Alcest’s second full-length album, it could be found in the fact that a clever leak of Ecailles de Lune that made the rounds before its release was rabidly snapped up worldwide even though most of the tracks came from a compilation of Chinese black metal acts. But the fact that it was treated as the real thing shows how strong Alcest’s own aesthetic mark has been made already, and Ecailles de Lune makes the most of its compelling fusion of black metal’s theatricality and the after-echoes of shoegaze’s propensity for utterly enveloping a listener, even if bandleader Neige approached that sound unconsciously at first. The first half of the two-part title track that begins the album starts with a gentle guitar chime before the full skyscraping riff kicks in, but — instead of getting even more intense as it goes — it’s happy to turn ev