French blackgaze band Alcest are one of extreme metal's most successful crossover bands, although they've moved further from metal over time (hence, presumably, their success in crossing over).…   Read Story »

The video for French metal travelers Alcest's new single "Autre Temps" is a shockingly pretty and romantic thing about forests and love and time passing. I kept expecting demons to erupt out of the…   Read Story »

Neige is on a roll. Over the past few years, the French multi-instrumentalist's honed his "post-black metal" (or whatever you want to call it) to an inspired blackened, dramatic, triumphant pitch. It…   Read Story »

The lineup shifts, but Alcest is basically Stéphane Paut, aka Neige, by his lonesome. Live, the project expands to a lush quartet. Last night at the Studio @ Webster Hall -- a show presented by…   Read Story »

Celestiial is the "forest doom" project of Minnesota's Tanner Anderson, who used to play guitar for area atmospheric black metallers Azrael. On his second full-length Where Life Springs Eternal he's…   Read Story »

Varg Vikernes -- who I spoke with a couple of weeks ago -- gets the bulk of the Norwegian-related black metal press, but for my kroner, Gylve Fenris Nagell, Darkthrone vocalist/lyricist/drummer/etc…   Read Story »

Stéphane Paut, aka Neige, is the French multi-instrumentalist behind the post-black metal/shoegaze/whatever project Alcest (see, also, Amesoeurs, Forgotten Woods, ex-Peste Noire, etc). The last…   Read Story »

In this installment I intentionally paired two longstanding bands who've shifted their approach/sound significantly during the course of their careers, not always to their fans' approval. Katatonia…   Read Story »