Le secret

It may not be the best short black metal record I’ve come across but it’s sure the most gorgeous and melodious even with the full-on barrage of buzzing steely black metal guitar on the two tracks. The first piece, “Le Secret”, begins with field recordings of chirping birds and a soft flowing acoustic guitar melody which are soon swept aside by the harsh vibrato guitar storms. The transition is not as abrupt as suggested here as the music is soon leavened with clean and subdued female vocals that are calm, unemotional and soothing. The lyrics paint a picture of a charming rustic garden scene which holds a secret that may not be as reassuring as the music suggests. Usually I’m wary of combinations of clean vocals with harsh minimal black metal fuzz as the contrast between the two can be so great that neither benefits much (I used to have a CD by the Danish band Make A Change … Kill Yourself that featured sweet female vocals with doomy harsh black metal which didn’t quite match) but Alcest succeeds here as the actual black metal is melodic, the singing is not very up-front and is soft, and the ambience of the recording is dreamy and not very clear.

“Elevation”, the second track, uses more anguished screaming black metal vocals yet there is very little hostility, aggression or other negative emotions usually found in black metal in this song. The drumming and the riffs tend to suggest a triump or celebration of some sort, maybe release from a lower, more dreary existence into a higher, freer world. The music has the feel of late seventies / early eighties new wave music. Towards the end the guitars and the technical drumming become loftier and the singing is more high-pitched as though the musicians are being carried away by a force unleashed by the music. The lyrics turn out to be a poem by Charles Baudelaire, the famous nineteenth century French poet who knew a thing or two about being an outsider and the wretchedness of existence, and in this black metal context the poem celebrates escape into a better world through death.

It’s interesting that the French Romantic outsider sub-culture of the 1800s has found a new resonance through black metal and Alcest has brought out a dark beauty and a strangely ethereal, even spiritual quality from this potent combination. A beautiful and flowing dark music portraying the release of the soul and the ecstasy of such release is this CD’s hallmark. The minimalist black metal style prevents sentimentality from tainting the nature-themed lyrics and ideas, and introduces a celebratory, positive aspect which is quite unusual for this kind of music. The Romantic elements temper the harsher aspects of the music and open it up to new ideas and emotions. Even the death-bed singing in “Elevation” seems to express a kind of joy. The level of musicianship is high and consistent with spot-on drumming and a remarkable wobbling yet disciplined guitar solo on “Elevation”.

The sleeve photos of trees, water and children (representing innocence), all with misty outlines, evoke a nostalgia for a time when people lived in harmony with Nature and life was simpler and less stressful and miserable than it is today, and agree with the themes of the music.