okay: let's discuss this shoegaze/post-rock "black metal" thing /!\ PINKAGE ALERT /!\

[einride]

let's have a thread about bands like alcest, amesoeurs, les discrets, lantlôs, fen, svarti loghin, sorgeldom etc.

i know some of these claim to be influenced by the british shoegaze scene (particularly slowdive i guess) and some have more of a post-rock vibe going on... often a little bit of both. they usually also have at least dipped their feet in the so called "depressive black metal" pond. since the moods in the shoegaze/post-rock/depressive* black metal genres are usually rather compatible i think this "genre" has potential for some really good music, but it also easily becomes a pretentious mess of shit that doesn't work.

so what's hot and what's not in this ScEnE? let's separate the wheat from the chaff!!!

• that split with FEN/DE ARMA? sounds pretty good. i wasn't impressed with FEN's first release, which at the time was accused of ripping of agalloch, and i think they're actually doing better now that they've wimped out a little.
• LANTLÔS "neon", is it actually a good album? it sounds a little generic to me but peepz seem to like it.
• the new ALCEST. i need to get this, i have the previous two so...
• LES DISCRETS. this shit is amazing. there's even less bm in it than most other bands but great atmospheres going on.
  

particularly interested in other, lesser known bands that aren't terrible copycats.


* i really hate using qualifiers before the words "black metal", but you know. i might just as well have typed "burzum" actually because that's what it is.

 

[Vittra]

You've pretty much listed all the bands worth listening to that belong to this...shall we say "movement". Prophecy Productions has a few others in a similar vein like Arctic Plateau that you may enjoy, but there aren't much more worth listening to.

I like .neon a lot, by the way. Les Discrets is the best of the bunch though and worthy of a listen by anyone who has not heard it.

 

[Dick Sirloin]

a) this Les Discrets song is GREAT
b) so is the new Alcest

There's my contribution.

 

[Krilons Resa]

[obligatory]FUCKING GAY![/obligatory]

 

[lurch70]

This is fag shit.

 

[swizzlenuts]

a) this Les Discrets song is GREAT
b) so is the new Alcest

There's my contribution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1XqYgukd4

Me Gusta

 

[Agalloch]

New Alcest is awesome.

 

[einride]

what do y'all think of this

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN73Kir0WHg&feature=related[/ame]

i think there are a lot of interesting ideas, and that the parts are good in themselves, but the songwriting/structuring is not really top-notch, and the album seems like a bit of a one trick pony. there's pretty much one mood throughout. could be really great with more variety..?


EDIT:

Arctic Plateau

yeah this shit goes too far, fuck this.

this is not "nostalgic" or anything, this is just "happy"

there's nothing dark about it at all, it's just slightly quirky pop music. and the vocalist has a terrible accent and is a bad singer

 

[Ellestin]

I have ambivalent (closeted?) feelings about this whole affair... The general sound most of these bands develop is beautiful and stimulating enough but unless proved wrong by something I haven't listened to yet, no great album has ever been made in the genre I think - Alcest's demo EP is great but it's just two songs and they went on to do some emo garbage, before admittedly pushing back the intolerable whining a little on the last album, which is actually quite nice.

Les Discrets fails to impress me. Like all the other bands erik cited, they have these really beautiful melodies and atmospheres on some songs, and too many nondescript ones in between.

I'd have to go with Lantlôs' .neon being the most consistent of the bunch, though ths songs are a little same-ish, and what I heard from the new album was far from promising.

Guess we'll have to wait for new Nasheim to pick up the winning torch.

 

[einride]

Guess we'll have to wait for new Nasheim to pick up the winning torch.

this is actually going to be a lot more orthodox than most of these, although not exactly darkthrone either. i am a northman, not french. i drink moonshine and beer in log cabins. i do not drink absinthe and red wine in a poetic restaurant.

Alcest's demo EP is great but it's just two songs

also it is essentially just BURZUM with a vocoder and major triads instead of minor ones. sure it was really different at the time but it's not exactly the same "genre" as when folks bring out the whole "french woman speaking softly over music that makes MY BLOODY VALENTINE sound like BESTIAL WARLUST" package.

 

[Ellestin]

I don't like wine tbh

 

[einride]

wine is okay but i am pretty unsophisticated winewise so cannot really tell one bottle of red wine from another

 

[Dick Sirloin]

Try this, Erik



M83 - "Unrecorded"

 

[Ellestin]

haha this is so gay

(i quite like it)
(i can imagine how a whole album of it would be tiresome though, even another song)

ok forget it I just heard the vocoder parts WTF

 

[Dick Sirloin]

M83 are fukken gods, dude. Even lurch agrees with this (I think). And they're French!

(Also: if this is "gay," then I'm goddamn Joel Schumacher)

 

[Ellestin]

This is gay, but you know, in a gay way, not, like, bad.

And they're French!

wowowow, you mean, they might be my neighbours?

 

[lurch70]

yeah M83 are probably the only band that Dick introduced me too that rule.

they managed to organically capture the 80's hypnotic NW sound and make it their own.

but let's face it ... IT IS fag shit ... but still great

 

[Dick Sirloin]

I've managed to get one through there?
Damn, I didn't realize that! Time to go celebrate!

 

[Climb Thar Hill]

What in the fuck is that!?

 

[Vittra]

Very different direction from .neon