Stéphane “Neige” Paut remembers what it was like before he was born. For his entire life, the French multi-instrumentalist has carried a memory with him, depicting an other world so blissful that it can never be properly described. Was it Heaven? A dream? Someplace between life and death? The musician doesn’t know – but, in Alcest, he tries to condense the loveliness of this vision into musical form.
Since 2001, Alcest’s divine drive has inspired seven studio albums and one EP. All of them mine the emotional depths of shoegaze, and many contrast that sweetness with the urgency of black metal. Here’s every preternatural offering by Neige and his disciple, drummer Jean “Winterhalter” Deflandre, ranked in reverse-order of magnificence.
