Alcest - Spiritual Instinct [Import] (New Vinyl LP)

For principal songwriter and frontman Neige, Alcest has always been a gateway to the otherworldly, a means of exploring his spirituality. An elemental two-piece, completed by long-serving drummer and creative confidante Winterhalter, their forthcoming sixth album “”Spiritual Instinct”” finds Neige at his most personal. “”This time I had something urgent to put on the table,”” he explains. “”It is a very cathartic record – something needed to get out of me. It”s darker than usual, and heavier.”” Written in bursts both during and after a prolonged period of touring in support of 2016”s hugely successful “”Kodama””, the sense of urgency Neige speaks of manifests in a record full of spontaneity, of immediate impact – be that in the breath-taking pace of the tempo changes in ”Les Jardin de Minuit” or the sun-kissed harmonies over an impermeable back beat in ”Sapphire”, one thing “”Spiritual Instinct”” has is riffs, an acknowledgement and celebration of the black metal foundations that anchor their uplifting post-metal. “”Some real metal riffs!”” agrees Neige. “”I come from the metal scene originally and it never really left me; I used black metal as a teen as a way to escape from reality and that”s what I love the most about it. It”s the best type of music to express overwhelmingly darker feelings. I usually don”t speak about my darkness in Alcest”s music but this time it felt like something I had to do.””

• – Side 1 –
• 1 Les Jardins de Minuit
• 2 Protection
• 3 Sapphire
• – Side 2 –
• 1 L”île Des Morts
• 2 Le Miroir
• 3 Spiritual Instinct