Alcest

Alcest is a French band led by Neige (Stéphane Paut) that began blending black metal with more melodic, atmospheric elements in the mid-2000s. Their 2007 debut 'Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde' established a sound that would later be called blackgaze, combining distorted guitars with ethereal vocals and synth textures. Songs like 'Les Voyages de L'Âme' and 'Autre Temps' show how they balance heavy riffing with almost shoegaze-like washes of sound.

Some listeners in the black metal scene criticized the band's approach as too soft or lacking aggression, but Alcest continued developing their style across albums like 'Écailles de Lune' and 'Kodama'. The lineup has included drummer Winterhalter (Yannic Paut) and bassist Zero (Indria Saray) alongside Neige, who handles vocals, guitar, and synths.

Their music often feels dreamlike and expansive, with tracks like 'Les Jardins de Minuit' and 'Je Suis D'ailleurs' creating immersive soundscapes rather than following traditional metal structures. While they've been grouped with the blackgaze label, their work has always had its own particular atmosphere, less about genre boundaries than about building specific emotional spaces through sound.