Is there a place for beauty in this world?
Many of the Croatian fans hardly could wait for this occasion- for the first arrival to a gig here of the French post black metal/shoegaze band ALCEST! The venue, Boogaloo hall- was decently full and it was very pleasant to experience the concert that started and ended at a decent hour and not too late. The band promoted the album “Les Chants de L’Aurore”, which was released in June 2024.
Alcest started in 2000 as a black metal solo project of Neige (Stéphane Paut), then became a trio, but members Aegnor and Argoth left the band after the release of their first demo in 2001. Now this French band is considered a post-black metal with strong post-rock and shoegaze influences, a completely original style that would have been labeled as blackgaze around the mid-2010s and which influenced many other bands to follow. Lyrical themes evolve around: nostalgia, childhood, beauty, spirituality, afterlife, memories, nature and poetry.
Alcest has the magic to transform melancholy into familiar comfort and the concert was a magical and relaxing experience as the overall atmosphere transferred us into a totally different time and space. We couldn’t help ourselves to start switching from one reminiscence to another as the atmosphere and flow of the songs reminded us of something strongly familiar and common denominator of the evening: this felt like home!
As a child, Neige had dreams about a “Fairy Land”, “a place with colors, forms and sounds that do not exist here.” The music of Alcest is highly influenced by these dream experiences. That leads us to the most important question of all: “Is there a place for beauty in this world?” For many, it would be the most difficult and most painful question of all. I believe there is, but only if you create it within yourself and within a very small bubble of very few people around you. We all carry enormous amounts of pain, anger and unresolved issues with ourselves and only the people that have remained kind can have the strength to maintain peace in and around themselves. A band like Alcest has the power to calm the mind, soothe the soul and bring peace. All you have to do is slow down a bit and pay full attention. Great gig and great atmosphere was created between the band and the gleeful audience!
Thank you Alcest for this magical evening and for showing us there is still some place for beauty in this extremely fucked up world! Especially from those of us who tend to forget that from time to time!
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