Fair warning, if you’re not into Alcest and/or ethereal post-whatever in general, then I strongly suggest you check out one of the many other fine reviews that will have been posted on Ave Noctum in the last few days. Mainly because while this isn’t actually an Alcest album (guest appearances aside), the main market for this is absolutely going to be the existing Alcest fanbase, for at least three reasons.
First and foremost, Janis is pretty posty noises of the sort that Alcest have been making for years, but with an interesting twist, which we’ll get to in a bit. Secondly, while there are enough musical similarities here that Alcest were always going to be my main comparison point, there is an actual Neige lurking here, on Automne Part 2. Thirdly, not only is this very much in the same vein as Alcest, it’s specifically moving in the same circles as a part of their sound that’s emerged over their last two albums. Which I’m really excited about, because Janis is essentially a whole album of some of my favourite bits of Spiritual Instinct and Les Chants de l’Aurore. So not only is it squarely aimed at Alcest fans, it’s specifically Alcest fans who really enjoyed a particular aspect of their last two albums.
That specific aspect being the big, clunky alt-rock vibes on tracks like Sapphire and Amethyste, where Alcest dip a suitably elegant, atmospheric toe into the possibility of being a different flavour of post band – it’s not so much post black as post hard, brittle rock, in the vein of Placebo or The Pixies. I personally love this aspect of their recent releases, which is just as well given what I’ve been given to review this week in the form of Janis.
Imagine a world where little tiny, early, baby Alcest, instead of dabbling in black metal in the run up to the millennium, had a brief but blistering flirtation with pure hardcore, got very into djent (as most people did at one particular point in metal history), and then meandered off down the post road. Think of how post and hardcore et al would have interacted on their subsequent albums, as they developed their own distinctive sound. The new hybrid genre that would have been born, and the daft name it would almost certainly have had. Hardjgaze? Shoecore? Hardjshoecore?
If you’re intrigued by what the above would sound like, then all I can really tell you is: listen to Janis.
Honestly, that’s it. That’s the review. Janis is what Souvenirs d’un autre monde would be if Alcest were a post-hardcore band with some metalcore and djent-y sharp edges. I can’t hand on heart say that the other genres in play here are generally my thing (I never did understand the appeal of djent), because they’re not, but when combined as well as this, with post that’s as good as the post on this album, I can’t help but love it anyway. There are certainly parts of Janis that press my buttons at least as well as any Alcest album, and there are also elements that I love in their own right.
The vocals, for instance. I’ve always loved the gentle, ethereal vocals of Alcest, punctuated by screams and harsh vocals that often sound faded by distance, whereas Vestige have much heavier vocals front and centre, and I love it. If Alcest are – as Neige has frequently alluded to – music from another world, then Vestige are very much of this world, meaning the whole thing is often far more intense and in your face, but no less beautiful, unearthly and enigmatic for it.
So yeah. If you like any of the aforementioned component parts, go listen to Vestige, because this is their Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde. If you love any of the above things, then you’ve probably got a new favourite band: get in there and fill your boots.
(9/10 Ellie)
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