Alcest – Les voyages de l'âme

January 6, 2012 • Prophecy Productions

Few people were looking forward to hearing new material from Alcest this year as much as me, especially after seeing them live last year. Even though Écailles de lune fell a little bit under my expectations (how can one follow up their godly debut album, anyway?) I was excited for this one. While it's a bit more of the same thing heard on the last album, it certainly isn't bad, even though it still can't stand up to the first one.

The sound on this album is pretty much identical to that of Écailles de lune—melancholy riffing with electric guitars, very basic drumming, and 99% clean vocals (Neige's awesome screaming pops up in just a couple places, and I do miss it). While it's still enjoyable, it is admittedly getting a bit generic and I feel like I can't tell the difference at all between the two albums. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is obviously up to the individual listener; I tend to see making the same album twice in a row as generally (not always) a bad thing, even if it's a really good album. Here I find myself getting bored (maybe jaded?) a bit more often than I think I ought to be (see "Beings of Light", five minutes of repetitive and generic black metal riffing).

But again, it's definitely not a bad album by any means, and Alcest probably isn't going downhill just yet. There are still some truly great moments on the album, and even if some songs seem to drag on there are points where the riffs and atmospheres are really great, such as the end of the title track, about 2:20 into "Faiseurs de mondes", or most of "Summer's Glory".

Like I said it's still nowhere as good as Souvenirs d'un autre monde and I didn't expect it to be—Alcest has gotten a bit too comfortable, perhaps, and we'll probably never hear anything diverse and interesting from them like "Tir Nan Og" anytime soon. But there's still life in the band and Les voyages de l'âme is still good, even if it's not exactly what I want from Alcest at this point.

6