It peaks with cloudy, ecstatic croons and a constant build in instrumental intensity that is wound so tightly it is clearly hurdling toward fracture, despite how beautiful it sounds. The melody starts hauntingly with a melancholy guitar line picked over the sound of an ocean’s waves. If only for this song alone, the album is excellent. The album wraps with “Délivrance,” a ten-minute building finale that goes on as musically complex a journey as the record itself. No crescendo goes without a resolution and no echo goes unanswered. Every time it gets rough, though, Shelter smooths itself out. And even though part of me would love to know the translation of the lyrics, I am more content with traipsing through this hazy, melodic adventure of sound and evocation.Īlcest’s metal influences can be heard in some tracks, with heavy, buzzy reverb and breakneck tempos.
Shelter has darkness and unsettling moments laden with distortion, but conversely also carries notes of hope and a drawn-out beauty. Though I couldn’t understand the majority of the lyrics, as most tracks are sung in French, I was taken on a journey through self-discovering contemplation. The dreamy vocals layered over and under the alternating mellow and intense blur of instrumentals are, to put it simply, gorgeous and thoughtful. It’s hard to talk about this album in terms other than the feelings it evokes. Each track on Shelter blends into the next, but carries a different emotion, from the vibrant second track “Opale,” to the heart-churning “Voix Sereines,” to the redeeming brightness of the title track, “Shelter.” This is Shelter.Īlcest, a French black-metal band turned shoegaze dilettante, has turned out an introspective soundtrack to soul-searching with their fourth full-length album, Shelter, which drops Jan. It’s a mental journey through your ins and outs, with a lingering voice singing blurry French floating through your ears.
You’re walking through Paris at night in a rainstorm and having a long, hard think.
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