ALCEST at Hard Luck Bar, Friday, September 25. Rating: NNNN
Few bands decide to transition out of black metal and into shoegaze over the course of their careers, but Paris’s Alcest play by their own rules. Their fourth album, 2014‘s Shelter, removed any last vestiges of metal from their sound, instead opting for softly fingerpicked glistening guitars and choral-like vocals bathed in moody layers of ambient reverb.
At the Hard Luck, leader Neige had the most serene of countenances, stepping gently between his pedals and mic stand, reserving any hair-whipping for only the most majestic of moments and politely thanking the crowd after each song. He’s said that as a child he communicated with a far-off world he called Fairy Land and that he uses Alcest to channel those memories. Accordingly the music is dream-like and gorgeous, especially the guitars and vocals, hitting much harder live than on record and unravelling so slowly and immersively that your perception of time falls away.
Despite too-quiet vocals and some mystery technical difficulties that had two sound techs onstage near the set’s beginning, the performance was absorbing and also pummelling – Neige hasn’t completely abandoned his throat-shredding death metal growl, which he pulled out at choice moments during the dynamic career-spanning set, nor has drummer Winterhalter, also operating a laptop, fully abandoned his blast beats. L’eveil Des Muses was a standout, and live guitarist Zero, more lionesque than any other man on earth, stunned with his high, achingly beautiful backing vocals.
Alcest are two extremes constantly balancing each other, leaving us with something we’ve never quite heard before.
carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis
