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YMMV / Alcest

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  • Adorkable: Neige. Very much due to his very shy but very well mattered behavior and Nice Guy attitude. He's also notably known for being a big dork and fanboy for anything Japanese, especially anime.
  • Awesome Art: The album covers for Écailles de lune and Les Voyages de l'âme. Helps they were done by close friend/acquaintance Fursy Teyssier, who also worked with him on Amesoeurs.
    • Kodama also features a beautiful cover design by the French duo Førtifem, reminiscent of the art of Takato Yamamoto. The additional artwork for the individual tracks included with the pre-order release is also exquisite.
  • Awesome Music: Every single album.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Abysses" off of Écailles de lune is a weird dark-like ambient piece that feels unfit on an album of blackgaze atmosphere. Some people often believe Neige only allowed this song in as a favor for Fursy.
  • Broken Base: Somewhat with Shelter. The album pretty much ignores every element of black metal and is basically full fledged Shoegaze/Dream Pop. A majority (even of those that love hard black metal) seem to consider it a brilliant album, but a small Vocal Minority see it as inferior to, say, Écailles de lune.
    • Which version of Le secret is better? The 2005 version or the 2011 version?
  • Creator Worship: Neige. Similar to another musician, Neige is very well respected in the metal community, due to the fact he has a wide range of music going back and forth. There's also the fact that he comes off as a very well meaning down-to-earth guy who's also a geek for anime and Japanese culture. It's also one of the reasons the below-mentioned Never Live It Down moment infuriates fans when people (especially in current PC culture) bring it up despite Neige growing as a person from the experience and bettering himself, especially when unlike certain black metal artists who attempt to avoid the topic, Neige admits his mistake and has repeatedly apologized for it.
  • Epic Riff: "Percées de lumière.", "Kodama", "Eclosion", and "Shelter", just to name a few.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Live members Zero and especially Indria Saray are well liked by fans, Zero for providing amazing backing vocals (he even performed an entire show when Neige's voice was strained) and Indria for his very quiet nature. People also tend to point out Indria has a much closer partnership with Neige than he had with Famine of Peste Noire (who allegedly had Indria in the band just to avoid allegations of racism).
  • Even Better Sequel: Écailles de lune to Souvenirs d'un autre monde, due to its increased prevalence of Harsh Vocals and generally stronger songwriting.
    • Kodama is generally considered this to Shelter, retaining the best qualities of that album while bringing back more elements of black metal.
  • Fandom Rivalry: Alcest VS Amesoeurs, as well as Alcest VS Peste Noire due to Neige and Winterhalter's former involvement in that band and the inflammatory comments Famine has made about them in interviews.
  • Gateway Series: They can serve as this to metal for some people.
  • Growing the Beard: Their first demo was pretty standard black metal. Le Secret was where they began developing the sound they became famous for.
  • Memetic Mutation: Jokes about Neige being a weeaboo are frequent in the fandom.
    • Calling Neige a fairy is also common due to his original belief that Alcest's music was based off of a fairy world he saw as a child in his dreams.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: Neige's clean vocals. By extension of songs, "Solar Song" and "Beings of Light", or Neige's guitar playing.
  • Never Live It Down: A very Vocal Minority will always bring up Neige's involvement with Peste Noire, due to the former's overt far right philosophy and frontman Famine's controversial antics in the French black metal scene. Despite the fact Neige never contributed to the band's far right-wing lyricsnote  and even admitting he was ashamed of his time involved in the band, detractors will still accuse Neige of "supporting" far right-wing views even though Neige has shown disapproval of racism, Nazism, and has barely shown his political views, with the exception of Alcest as a band joining the #blackouttuesday to protest against police brutality in the US.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Neil Halstead in "Away". His and Neige's vocals blend beautifully and he only appears as a featured guest.
    • Billie Lindahl on "Into the Waves". It's her only song on lead vocals, but she manages to give one of the most beautiful and emotive performances in the band's discography.
  • Signature Song: "Écailles de lune Part 1", "Autre temps", or "Délivrance."
  • Sweet Dreams Fuel: Everything, especially with Shelter; you could sleep to that album.
  • Tear Jerker: "Sur l'océan couleur de fer", the last song on Écailles de lune.
    • "Away", "Into the Waves", and possibly "Délivrance" from Shelter (though the latter is more like Tears of Joy).
    • "Untouched" and "Onyx" on Kodama.
    • "Circe Poisoning the Sea" from the Les Discrets split.
    • Both versions of "Le secret", but special mention to the 2011 version which comes off as a Bittersweet Ending compared to the straight-up Downer Ending of the 2005 version.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Happens a lot with this band: When Écailles de lune hit, fans were pretty split due to the heavy usage of black metal elements mixed with shoegaze (The re-release of Le Secret with re-recordings didn't help the matter), all while the reaction to Les voyages de l'âme was mixed due to being more shoegaze-like and less black metal influenced. On the other hand, this has mostly passed by now and the reaction to both albums is pretty positive overall.
    • Shelter is this for some fans, although it should be noted that this is mainly a Vocal Minority.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Some listeners thought there were female vocals on Le Secret. There aren't. Neige performs all vocals on the album.

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