Author Nick Cusworth

Let’s get the obvious and overstated out of the way: Shelter is in no way a metal album. Over the course of the French blackgaze/post-metal hybrid’s career, Alcest (i.e. Neige) has delicately straddled the line between black metal and heavy music’s touchstones and airy, cinematic soundscapes more akin to the likes of Sigur Rós or classic dream pop/shoegaze acts like Slowdive and Lush. Since the initial release of Le Secret in 2005, Neige has gradually pushed the project further away from its harsher roots to the point that his previous album, the sweeping Les Voyages De L’Âme, featured very little in the way of raspy screams and massive distortion in favor of clean tones and beautiful melodies.