While it contains occasional passages reminiscent of the immersive, shoegaze-influenced sound of Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde, Alcest’s latest release Écailles de Lune feels more like a fusion of Neige’s styles in Alcest and other projects. Taking inspiration from the mysteriousness and expansiveness of the seas, Neige has crafted another emotional musical journey, but this one feels much colder and more ethereal than its predecessor.

Supposedly Écailles de Lune tells the story of a man leaving one world for another one, and as such it’s divided into two parts. The first three songs present a sound akin to Alcest mixed with Amesoeurs, while the last two are possibly even more mellow than the sound from Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde. Each song stands well by itself, and a few are quite brilliant, but with only five real tracks the album also feels excruciatingly short.

The two-part opener ‘Écailles de Lune’ and the third track ‘Percées de Lumière’ feel almost like a continuation of the raw emotion and atmosphere Neige helped to create on Amesoeurs’s Ruines Humaines EP. Neige’s characteristic use of delicate clean guitars and vocals contrasted with lush soundscapes and triumphant melodic songwriting is present as always, but the post-rock elements of the last album have been largely replaced by a sorrow-tinged black metal influence. Blackened screams do make a return on a couple of the songs, but only briefly. These three songs feel almost like a culmination of Neige’s style at this point, and ‘Percées de Lumière’ in particular sticks out for me as one of the better songs he’s ever written.

After the short instrumental track ‘Abysses’, the warm guitar tones and soothing vocals of ‘Solar Song’ wash over you, and many fans will immediately be reminded of the shoegaze-metal sound from Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde. This is really the only song on Écailles de Lune that manages to capture that same dreamlike quality that was present on Souvenirs. The album comes to a close with the most unique and unexpected track on the album, ‘Sur L’Océan Couleur De Fer’, which is a peaceful, almost lullabye-like composition that I think most effectively captures the sense of seaside solitude and wonder that Neige was going for.

Personally I prefer the first half of the album to the second, but the real drag is that while the album runs a decently-long 42 minutes, it somehow feels achingly short. Plus, if you already have Alcest’s split with Les Discrets from last year, then you’ve already heard ‘Percées de Lumière’, which means you’re down to only four new songs. Regardless of its length though, Écailles de Lune is more of what we’ve come to expect from Neige, and I think most fans of Alcest or Neige’s other stuff will find a lot to like.

» Buy Ecailles de Lune from Amazon.com