KODAMA

I move slowly these days. I did not even know this crew had released a new album.

After the relative disappointment of Shelter, Neige and co. seem to have decided to return to earlier times and sounds in most ways. These are thoughtful compositions...moving from contemplative to aggressive in the wink of an eye. Even my cat has been surprised by some of the sudden tempo or volume changes, and he snatches birds out of the sky. The vocals either caress or scream. Yes! the screams are back! Yes the guitar washes are back! Everything that I loved about these guys is here in spades. Overall the production seems more fitting which is to say there is now a bottom end, something I complained about on the earlier albums.

I read something somewhere that said this was their "Japanese" album. I don't know what a "Japanese" album is, though I've always liked that song Sukiyaki. I guess, yes, Neige said it was influenced by the film Princess Mononoke. Well enough. It is all full of light and darkness, of earth and air, of death and life.

Of course I still do not understand the words (my fault, I don't speak French). Welcome back Alcest. I'd forgotten about you and it's good to see an old friend can still awe.

Although I liked Alcest's first two albums and considered their particular take on the "Blackgaze" style of black metal/shoegaze mashup to be quite pleasing (albeit with a gimmick which didn't quite stand up to repeat listens), their third album Les voyages de l'âme seemed to find the approach wearing thin, Neige and crew seeming to lose interest in the black metal part of their formula. Their fourth album, Shelter, only served to confirm that impression in my eyes, since it saw them more or less entirely drop the black metal aspects of their sound for a more purely shoegaze approach.

However, perhaps just this sort of diversion was needed to allow Alcest to recharge their black metal batteries, because the full blackgaze style is back on Kodama, a concept album inspired by the conflict between the human and natural worlds as depicted in the classic anime movie Princess Mononoke. The concept isn't as awkward a fit for atmospheric black metal as you may think - after all, aren't Wolves In the Throne Room positively obsessed with just such ideas? - and though the delivery doesn't seem to draw very much on traditional Japanese music (or anime soundtracks) stylistically, it does feel like Alcest more confidently setting forth their particular formula, though it is a formula which I've grown weary of.

Great blackgaze, but that's all it is: 6.5/10

Blackgaze. Such a beautiful, aesthetic name for a genre. It combines shoegaze's immersion with black metal's heavy and bleak riffages, creating an atmosphere that feels simultaneously warm and melancholic; like a dismal cloudy day, whose dreariness is depressing but, strangely, comfortable. Alcest. Since their first EP, LE SECRET, they solidified their position as forerunners of the genre; however, in their 2014 album (SHELTER), apparently the band changed their directions to pure dream pop/shoegaze. Kodama. A beautiful, nocturnal, cryptic cover (one of my favorite covers ever! The only reason I tried this album, to be honest), with a strange concept (related to the movie Princess Mononoke), and ALCEST's return to their acclaimed blackgaze style.

I can't say as a knowledgeable authority this is ALCEST at the top of their game, but the production, songwriting, and musicianship seem to indicate that, at the very least, they're doing pretty well. Blackgaze's peculiar style is enticing and unique, and through KODAMA's forty minutes, my ears were engulfed in ALCEST's fogginess. While my experience was good, I found the sameness to be KODAMA's biggest issue. Offering little variation, repetitive riffs, annoyingly unintelligible screams (sound awesome but are absolutely impossible to decipher or accompany; additionally, the clean vocals are much better), there's honestly no effort to make the tracks feel different from each other. Perhaps intentionally, perhaps not, KODAMA is shaped, sonically, as a huge, forty-minutes-long song. But who is to blame? Not black metal nor shoegaze are known for eclecticism. ALCEST would naturally suffer from that hereditary dysfunction.

KODAMA (and ALCEST) didn't disappoint but neither did they astound me. While this will undoubtedly be a treat for shoegaze/atmospheric black metal fans, personally, I found it enjoyable but unmemorable.

Oh, let me add nuance to that last word: while I do remember my experience with KODAMA, literally any moment of it that pops in my mind sounds virtually the same.