ALCEST — Tristesse Hivernale (review)

ALCEST — Tristesse Hivernale album cover Demo · 2001 · Atmospheric Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
Conor Fynes
'Tristesse Hivernale' - Alcest (4/10) Now one of the most legendary and revered names in the blackgaze and post black metal circles, Alcest has developed into quite a unique entity since first starting off here. When Alcest frontman and mastermind Neige was only 15, he began his work with Alcest with 'Tristesse Hivernale', an incredibly raw piece of atmospheric black metal. Here, Alcest is still a band as opposed to a solo project, and fairly typical for most black metal. Although incredibly poor production values (even for black metal) rob 'Tristesse' of being a wholeheartedly enjoyable experience, there is promise shown here that would be fully realized in later works.

'Tristesse Hivernale' is made of twenty minutes of howls, rough electric guitar work, somewhat simplistic blastbeats and some of the worst production values I've ever heard from a band I care about. The saving grace here though is in the composition of the music itself, which while hard to listen to at times, still really shows a grasp of the genre that many of the bigger names at the time were getting recognized for. It may be difficult at times to hear the riffs unless one listens closely, but even this early on, it is possible to hear the emotional impact of the riffs. Although there is very little of Alcest's shoegaze elements to speak of here, things do get mellow from time to time, which is much less hindered by the weak production than any of the heavier material.

Certainly a demo only for the fans of Alcest or black metal purists, but as weak a listening experience as this may be, the potential can be heard here.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rot Stink Rip Death Metal
TOMBSTONER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Human Rosin Melodic Metalcore
HATE BREEDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Through The Hell Hardcore Punk
ENEMY 906
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lightmatter: Rebirth Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eye Of Horus (Lightmatter EP Pt. 2) Deathcore
EARTHGAZER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 5 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 5 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 6 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed