Live Review: Alcest - Academy 2, Manchester
Support: Svalbard, Doodseskade
12th December 2024
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Nic Howells
Although the year is entering its dying days, there are still plenty of live events happening to ease 2024 into the history books. Earlier this week it was Obituary but, tonight, it’s the turn of Bagnols-sur-Cèze black metal experimentalists, Alcest, to make a stop off in Manchester.
Such is the nature of Alcest’s musical diversity that their support bands for this evening could not be much more removed from the headliner’s ethos if they tried.
Belgian two-piece Doodseskader are in the midst of a destructive set of raw, noise-related tunes. As a duo and with the sound being nihilistic and misanthropic, the first association I come to is Godflesh: their dissociated rhythmic drive and the deep bass sound seems devoid of any humanity. Images and words are projected onto the ever-shifting rear projection and Tim De Gieter – usually spotted giving the core to Amenra’s music – is literally vibrating through the walls of the building. Having songs with titles such as The Sheer Horror of the Human Condition, It’s Not an Addition if You Don’t Feel Like Quitting and People Have Poisoned My Mind to a Point Where I Can No Longer Function very much tells you where the band are coming from; their bleak, dissonant delivery fully in keeping with those sentiments.
In stark contrast is Svalbard, the Bristol-based band who’ve been treading the board since back in 2011, and never produce anything short of a cracking show. In the introduction to Defiance, Serena admits to having a soft spot for Manchester, as it’s the town in which she attended her first ever gig: Slipknot at the then MEN Arena. On the strength of the turn out and the band merchandise, I’d suggest Manchester likes Svalbard back.
Opener Eternal Spirits takes some time for the guitars to settle, but Serena and Liam exchange vocals with ease, switching between death growls and cleans at will. Disparity introduces some symphonic elements and finds whatever gremlins were affecting the guitars have been banished. The only song from When I Die, Will It Get Better is Open Wound, introduced as being about getting your heart broken, it alternated between the raw and measured, with a poppy mid-section thrown into the mix, emulating those emotions in musical form.
Oldie, For the Sake of the Breed is fast and furious, Defiance blends a certain sense of whimsy into its rampant charge, while the newer To Wilt Beneath the Weight’s choppy riffs and unmistakable grooves goes someway to hoisting a middle finger to the depressive subject matter.
Before beginning set closer Faking It, Serena announces it is an unnamed person’s birthday today and, rather than singing Happy Birthday, everyone should participate in a moments silence in protest to the concept of aging. Liam kindly blabs that the birthday in question is actually Serene’s and an impromptu chorus of Happy Birthday gets sung anyway.
Svalbard obvious not only like Manchester but also like touring with cerebral bands; they were in town with Enslaved back in February and here again with Alcest tonight; should we expect to see them next time Meshuggah come to town? I hope so.
Beginning life as a raw black metal solo project following multi-instrumentalist Neige’s departure from Amesoeurs, Alcest’s first musical steps soon softened to incorporate influences from as wide a sources as Burzum, Joy Division and European neo-classical composers, among others.
Obviously stacked heavily with tracks from this year’s Les Chants de l’Aurore album, the projection of just a full moon and a slowly building ambience heralds to entrance of the band and the opening tune, Komorebi. Essentially setting the blueprint for the performance, it is both melancholic and
upbeat, both soaringly powerful and achingly fragile. Enrapturing; mesmeric; hypnotic; it is all these things and more. Even Komorebi’s harsher moments have an elegance and grace.
Fellow new tracks, L’Envol and Améthyste continue Alcest’s journey through Les Chants de l’Aurore. Vast soundscapes pour from the speakers, triplets and huge drumbeats spark a deep memory of the band’s origins, but the ethereal whispered vocals and emotion-filled moments add multiple shades to the darkness.
Protection and Sapphire find the band adopting the harder edges of the Spiritual Instinct album and receiving a rapturous reception for so doing. Crashing waves signal the opening of the set’s second oldest song, Écailles de lune, part II, blending the fierce with the mournful, dense musical passages masquerading as light and chirpy, all the while within a progressive setting.
Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde has an Anathema-feel and, being from the band’s first album proper, acted as the manifesto which would define their sound from the start. Translated as Memories of Another World, Dayal Patterson’s book, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, would gather a number interviews between the author and Neige, in which the musician states “My aim with Alcest is to depict a dimension I used to see in visions when I was a child” (page 476), giving reason to the ethereal and otherworldly nature of the band’s music.
The main set closed with Oiseaux de Proi, which cannot but help that its mask slips, revealing the beating black heart that lies within. Encores of Autre Temps and the delicate guitar of L’Adieu bring the show to a close, a show that might not have been the most engaging as far as visuals were concerned, was a feast for the ears and the mind.
This week saw the announcement of the Hellfest 2025 line up, with Alcest as Temple headliners on the Thursday. Not many bands could go on after Thy Catafalque, Ihsahn and Sunn O))) and still challenge the listener. Alcest can, and no doubt will.
Music needs bands like Alcest to remind us that it is art form and needs to be difficult at times; it’s the way we as listeners are able to grow and develop.
Photo Credits: Nic Howells
Ref: Patterson, Dayal. Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House, 2103.
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