Weekly album: Alcest - Kodama

Alcest - Kodama

2016 / Blackgaze, shoegaze, dream pop

1. Kodama

2. Eclosion

3. Je suis d'ailleurs

4. Untouched

5. Oiseaux de proie

6. Onyx

7. Notre sang et nos pensées

tp5170: I was simply delighted when it became clear that Kodama was not going to be a continuation to the band's previous album, Shelter. Not that Shelter was a bad album, but stripping the music entirely of black metal elements was an innovation that didn't really work for me. 

Style wise Kodama instead continues right from where 'Les voyages de l'âme' left it and it works absolutely beautifully. Though, I have to admit that even I was slightly shocked about the lack of surprises on the first spin, but at the same time this was exactly what I was hoping for - a glorious return to the older sound and that's just what Kodama has to offer.

It doesn't really change the formulae of the older albums, but it makes up for the lack of innovation with superior execution. It's the little things here and there that tighten the album as a whole and make Kodama one of the band's more enjoyable releases.

Orostider: Alcest, the dreamy blackgazers of France managed to cause quite an uproar with their previous album 'Shelter' by disregarding the previously present black metal elements. Even though I am not as fond of 'Shelter' as I am of the first three albums, I did enjoy it, but hearing the news about the return of the black metal elements made me happy. Spinning 'Kodama' for the first time felt quite anxious due to my high expectations.

'Shelter' leaned more towards the dream pop and shoegaze sides of Alcest and many feared that the cold shrieks of Neige were long lost. The first track is once again free of the shrieks as seems to be the pattern. 'Souveniers d'un Autre Monde' lacked the shrieks completely, but both 'Écailles de Lune' and 'Les Voyages De L'Âme' started to have shrieks after the first song. Not sure if this is intentional, but it seems to work quite well. The vocals in general are just an instrument among the others, but on Alcest's albums the usage of vocals as another instrument seems to be distinct. This is not an awful thing at all in my opinion, because Neige's vocals, both clean and harsh, are top quality as usual. 

The rest of the album doesn't really surprise me, which actually was sort of a disappointment. 'Shelter' was enjoyable due to its freshness among Alcest's discography and I hoped for something unexpected from 'Kodama.' Black metal influenced shoegaze and dream pop was what Alcest did in the past and now they have returned to it. Once again, this is not a bad thing, but 'Kodama' fails to convince me that it offers something new. It's a solid album and it can easily be compared to 'Les Voyages De L'Âme' and some people would definitely choose 'Kodama' as the winner. 

Steering clear of making such decisions is what I do, but I can say this: 'Kodama' is a wonderful addition to the discography of Alcest and I will probably spin it several times like I've done with the rest of the albums. Despite the fact that it is a damn good album, it still could have given something more: something new. I'm also glad that Alcest returned to blackgaze because they seem to know the drill, but I would also be happy if they released another album with different material. 

Favourite track: 'Eclosion'

btcarey: This was my first Alcest album so it was pretty cool to get a feel for the band from a completely outside perspective.  “Kodama” was a pleasant break from my normal listening agenda and I must say the calm, relaxed mood of the album was a nice change. While Alcest is generally classified as blackgaze I really don’t see the similarities with the blackgaze bands I’m familiar with (which is pretty few). “Kodama” is a peaceful, smooth piece of work that many people from an even non-metal background could really dig. This being said, there are a few moments where you can recognize Alcest’s alleged black metal roots. Screeched vocals occasionally seep into the music but are done with such a subtle grace that it feels completely natural in this tranquil atmosphere. With a light drum mix and plenty of echo the album is a hypnotizing piece that can make for some excellent background music on a calm night.

Favorite Track: “Eclosion”

Weekly album: Kalmankantaja - Waldeinsamkeit

Kalmankantaja - Waldeinsamkeit

2016 / Atmospheric black metal, black metal

1. Hautamaa

2. Maailmankaski

3. Kalman kivinen kohtu

4. Vaeltaja

5. Waldeinsamkeit

btcarey:  I just recently found out about Kalmankantaja when I was checking if Wyrd (one of my Finnish favorites) had released anything recently. To my surprise, I came across a split from a couple months ago that I had completely missed. Kalmankantaja did an excellent job on it and I figured if the guys from Wyrd thought highly enough of the band to do a split release, then they must be worth checking out. As I dug a bit deeper I quickly found out that these guys were powerhouses! Over the course of about 5 years, Kalmankantaja had already released 9 studio albums and a slew of EPs and splits. As they say, “quantity isn’t necessarily quality” but in Kalmankantaja’s case I am thoroughly impressed by what I’ve heard.

“Waldeinsamkeit” has stood out to me the most so far and since it’s one of their more recent releases (early 2016, already a full length album, EP, and split old) I figured it would be a good choice to talk about. First off the band delves deeply into the atmospheric side of black metal. The guitar parts are mostly repetitive tremolo riffs (with plenty of echo), but do a good job of providing nice melodies to accompany the raspy vocals. One of my favorite aspects of the instrumentation was the synth. Mostly composed of two tones, one of which, very thin and bright, reminding me of wind chimes on a blustery fall day. The other tone was a much more ghostly, dark, background noise that just enveloped the music. Together, these two phrasings made an incredibly vivid atmosphere.

I would easily recommend Kalmankantaja to any fan of atmospheric or even pagan black metal. Fans of bands like Wyrd or Urfaust should also check these guys out.

Favorite Tracks: “Vaeltaja”, “Kalman Kivinen Kohtu”

Orostider: Kalmankantaja wasn't familiar to me even by their name before they were added to Steelfest 2017 line-up. While browsing through their Metallum page, I noticed their tendency to do splits quite frequently and it isn't common to release more than one album in a year so I had to dig into their info a bit more. 'Waldeinsamkeit' is the first Kalmankantaja album released in 2016 and they've already released another one this year. In 2014 Kalmankantaja released four albums which is a lot. This made me think of a chance that they are compensating quality with quantity, but we'll see about it. 

Kalmankantaja's black metal leans towards the more atmospheric and moody side of the scene. The positive side is that they are executing their style quite well and the quantity compensation I feared is inaudible. The problem is, however, the lack of creativity. The album itself is quite decent slab of black metal and there isn't really enough atmospheric black metal written in Finnish, but the music itself doesn't stand out from the rest of the scene. It might be just me, but in my opinion the amount of mediocre black metal has been growing a lot past ten years and it's really hard for a black metal band to offer anything new. So the imperfections of Kalmankantaja aren't actually theirs only, but the whole scene's.

The songs follow the common guidelines of atmospheric black metal. Simple repetitive riffs combined to slow beats and adding echo and reverb to the stack. I'm not saying that the combination is faulty or anything, but I'm hoping for something more even though 'Waldeinsamkeit' could be above average quality overall. The hollow synths used in 'Kalman kivinen kohtu' were a fine addition but I was disappointed of their overall scarcity. The synths are heavily present in the last instrumental track 'Waldeinsamkeit', but the track just proves that the cold and eerie synths should've been used more. 

Even though 'Waldeinsamkeit' doesn't really bring anything new to the table I can easily recommend it to people who are into black metal. The album is probably the most enjoyable if this kind of black metal isn't too familiar already. 

Favourite tracks: 'Kalman kivinen kohtu', 'Waldeinsamkeit'

tp5170: Waldeinsamkeit is what I'd call a pretty competent atmospheric black metal album. It's really entertaining stuff, even if it felt to me like they seriously should have pressed harder with the black metal elements on the instrumental side. It's not a major issue really, but the cleanness of it just hinders my enjoyment a bit.

Another thing about the album is that it gets maybe a bit repetitive at some points, and this is something I thought I'd never say about a atmospheric black metal album because we are probably talking about one if not the most repetitive sub genres of black metal, but they just kept using some of the same tricks throughout the album annoyingly often.

Minor complaints aside, the album sounded surprisingly good and the vocals are absolutely spot on for the album's atmosphere. Even if it's a lot cleaner sounding, Waldeinsamkeit reminds quite bit of Wyrd which is not a bad thing at all in this case.

I don't really know how this compares to other albums of Kalmankantaja, but I wouldn't find it surprising if this was one of their better albums.

Favourite track: 'Hautamaa'