Spiritual Instinct (New LP)

“”For principal songwriter and frontman Neige, Alcest has always been a gateway to the otherworldly, a means of exploring his spirituality. An elemental two-piece, completed by long-serving drummer and creative confidante Winterhalter, their forthcoming sixth album “”Spiritual Instinct”” finds Neige at his most personal. “”This time I had something urgent to put on the table,”” he explains. “”It is a very cathartic record – something needed to get out of me. It’s darker than usual, and heavier.””Written in bursts both during and after a prolonged period of touring in support of 2016’s hugely successful “”Kodama””, the sense of urgency Neige speaks of manifests in a record full of spontaneity, of immediate impact – be that in the breath-taking pace of the tempo changes in ‘Les Jardin de Minuit’ or the sun-kissed harmonies over an impermeable back beat in ‘Sapphire’, one thing “”Spiritual Instinct”” has is riffs, an acknowledgement and celebration of the black metal foundations that anchor their uplifting post-metal.””Green LP