It's time for another heavy metal suggestion for this cold winter. If you are not familiar with this series, it's a weekly thing were I present one new band that suits best for these cold, gloomy days. So if you are

• Taking a walk through the snow covered woods
• Riding on an empty subway while passing by the beautiful white landscapes
• Being curled up in a comfy chair covered in blankets, drinking hot chocolate beside the crackling fire
• Reading Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones or similar epic fantasy book
• Writing a new story for your Steemit blog

.. you should definitely check these out and share your impressions in the comments. In the previous posts we talked about:

• Wintersun,
• Agalloch,
• Summoning and
• Ensiferum

Check them out if you haven't already.

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Alcest

Alcest is a French shogaze / post metal band founded in 2000 by the frontman and multi-instrumentalist Neige. It was a solo project all the way until 2009 when Les Discrets' drummer Winterhalter have joined, making it a duo.

In it's beginning Alcest had strong black metal influences and it is widely considered as one of the pioneers of blackgaze genre which become very popular in the recent years. Neige's first idea was to create raw and cold black metal, but it moved away from this approach in 2005 by introducing new rock, shoegaze and post metal concepts.

As a child Neige had vivid dreams about "fairy land", magical "far off country" with beautiful colors and celestial sounds flowing in the air like a perfume. His music is heavily influenced by this "place" and it's intended to be a journey and an adaptation of his memories about this Neverland.

In an interview for a spin magazine Neige said about Alcest and "Fairy land":

- "It’s a band I created in order to translate into music a very special experience that happened to me when I was a child — something very spiritual and difficult to describe. Music can describe it better than words. There is a lot of hope, a lot of nostalgia, something very uplifting and spiritual, these otherworldly melodies. I do this music precisely to not have to speak about what is behind the music. I just make this music, and it’s coming from the deepest parts of myself. It’s almost subconscious."

You can feel this in their music. One listen of Autre Temps, from the "Les Voyages de l'Âme" album makes you feel like a better and changed man.

Alcest combines influences from black metal bands like Ulver and Burzum to shoegaze bands like Joy Division to create unique, otherworldly, uplifting atmosphere.

On their fourth album, "Shelter", Alcest moved away from most of their black metal influences and created light rock / shoegaze release. Even though the Alcest's distinctive magic was present, some die-hard fans had issues with lack of heavier sounds.

After this experiment, band decided to return to it's origins on their last album named "Kodama" inspired by movie "Princess Mononoke". Heavy guitar riffs, growls and screams are back on this masterpiece with shadow of Japan looming over it.

If you want to explore this band, you can start with Les Voyages de l'Âme, one of the most beautiful albums in metal history (in my honest opinion) and continue on from there.

Here is a couple of song suggestions and a lyrics teaser (translated from French).

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A faraway prayer carried by the evening wind
Animates the leaves in their languorous dance
It's the hymn of the old trees, sung for you
For those somber forests which are now asleep
So many seasons have passed without waiting for us
The golden leaves falling to the ground to die
Will someday come back to life beneath a radiant sky
But our eroded world will remain the same
And tomorrow, you and I will be gone

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Find more about Alcest on Enter Night, my website for the fans of heavy sound.

Until next time \m/

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Images: 1, 2, 3, lyrics

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