Review by Xephyr for Alcest - Kodama (2016)

Gorgeous, Comforting, But Retrospectively Lacking

My foray into Alcest’s blend of dreamy but somewhat sinister influences from Shoegaze and Black Metal, hence Blackgaze, didn’t begin with their most acclaimed Écailles de lune nor with Souvenirs d’un autre monde, but with Kodama, an album that beautifully expands on their Shoegaze and Post-Rock tendencies. In fact, it was somewhat shocking to go back to Écailles de lune to find out how they solidified themselves as one of the first premier Blackgaze bands by having a more balanced mix of the extreme versus the relaxing. However, I’ve always been drawn back to Kodama more than the rest of Alcest’s discography despite it being a less daring or complex release. I’ve gone back and forth on how much I truly enjoy this album under a critical lens, feeling conflicted for quite some time about separating my ability to melt into my chair and just enjoy Kodama wholly as a break from all the death and destruction I tend to check out on a regular basis versus how good I think the album actually is. I’ve finally reached a resolution in that Kodama is an incredibly strong album for Alcest, but it doesn’t quite have the full album package I thought it once did.

For those who enjoyed the more Black Metal tinged side of Alcest may want to look elsewhere though since, apart from a few select sections in “Eclosion”, “Je suis d’ailleurs”, and “Oiseaux de proie”, they stay well within the realm of Shoegaze and Post-Metal to form their warm blankets of sound. The premise behind most of Kodama’s tracks is to form lush sounding, extended progressions of sound from layered guitars laced in echo and reverb atop drums that are just punchy enough to be noticed behind the soothing melodies. Minimalist guitar and vocal sections build and build to eventually culminate in a Black Metal inspired flurry of layered tremolo melodies with pseudo blast-beats and pained vocals that certainly gets aggressive enough to have an impact but never tips over the edge of sounding harsh or dissonant. Kodama is filled with incredible small moments that still leave a significant impression on me after a few years returning to this album, whether it’s the chorus vocal melody in the opener “Kodama” or the echoing guitar feature towards the end of “Je suis d’aillure”. The impacts of these small moments show how cohesive of an album Alcest were able to create, with everything seeming to fall into its perfect place as the tone rises and falls through the course of each of the tracks. The more I return to this album the more I realize how comforting it is with its supple vocals and winding melodies, but the pushing past some of the personal bias I realized that Kodama was beginning to show a few cracks after all these years.

The first half of the album is, personally speaking, Alcest’s best run of songs from “Kodama” to “Untouched”, but the final three tracks put a serious damper on Kodama’s full runtime. Although “Oiseaux de proie” is a fantastic track in its own right, after so many listens I can’t ignore the fact that it retreads a bit too much of the same ground as the first three songs without adding any of its own flair. From there “Onyx” is a more experimental interlude featuring a very slow layered progression that doesn’t exactly go anywhere, leading into the disappointing album closer “Notre sang et nos pensées”, another song that features a glacial buildup into a miniscule payoff to end the album. Kodama is undoubtedly a slow album in general with most of the track lengths reaching above 7 minutes, but I can’t help but feel let down after the end of “Untouched”.

Although Kodama remains one of the most beautiful, comfortable albums I consistently return to, it doesn’t sit atop as enormous of a pedestal as I once thought. When I was initially introduced to the likes of Blackgaze and Post-Metal, bands like Cult of Luna or Isis weren’t on my radar, so I was stunned at how elegant the layers of sound Alcest created were. As I’ve bolstered my experience in this realm of reflective, cozy sounding Metal, I feel like I’ve outgrown Kodama in some ways, expecting a bit more flair or full album cohesion overall. This remains my favorite Alcest release just due to how gorgeous it sounds, but it seems like it’s time to move on from this being my quintessential pinnacle of lighter, dreamier Post-Metal.