Music / Reviews
Review: Alcest/The Devil’s Trade, SWX
Hailing from Budapest (“It’s a great place to leave . . . and arrive here”), The Devil’s Trade are perfectly suited to the Season of Mist label. Although their roots are planted firmly in doom metal, they refuse to be constrained by genre and – in the live setting at least – boast an unusual trio configuration: vocals/guitar, keyboards, drums.
Their official biog bills them as ‘Dark Doom Folk’ and makes much of the term ‘liminal’, though there’s precious little evidence of any folk element on display tonight. Instead they serve up a powerful set of dark, atmospheric, melancholic metal, driven by mainman Dávid Makó’s impressive, sonorous vocals.
is needed now More than ever
Indeed, to all intents and purposes, Makó appears to be The Devil’s Trade as he’s the sole credited member of their line-up. One suspects that this music would sound very different when delivered in solo acoustic format.
It’s been a pleasure to watch French blackgazers Alcest slowly find the audience they so richly deserve over the past few years, even though that has meant enduring the occasional awful headliner (Mono, anyone?). They’re never going to get played on the radio, appear on Later . . . with Jools Holland or be selected by cool music journalists as a ‘pick of the week’. And yet plenty of people have somehow found their way here to make up a large and diverse audience for the band’s biggest ever headlining show in Bristol. Last time Alcest headlined here, they were at the Fleece, just before the first Covid lockdown in March 2020. That sold-out gig was so packed and sweaty it’s a safe bet that many went away infected with more than an enthusiasm for their music.
There’s a little bit more room to move and breathe tonight, but the uptick in the band’s fortunes is quite noticeable. Big Jeff’s back in the house and we’re all ready to rock. The occasion is the tenth anniversary of the breakthrough Écailles de lune album, on which Alcest refined their signature style: a soaring blend of black metal with shoegaze, topped with a big sugary dollop of dream pop. No one else was doing this stuff back in the 2010s, though plenty of bands have now followed in Alcest’s wake.
A man of few, heavily accented words, unfailingly polite and softly spoken founder Neige introduces the band with a simple: “Good evening Bristol. We are Alcest from France. Thank you all for coming.”
Played in sequence, Écailles de lune runs for little more than 40 minutes, which means it occupies less than half the set, finishing off with an absolutely gorgeous rendition of the lovely Sur l’océan couleur de fer. Anniversary obligation discharged, they dip back still further to 2007 debut album Souvenirs d’un autre monde for the title track. Neige and drummer Winterhalter have certainly succeeded in putting together an outstanding touring band, second guitarist Pierre Corson’s vocals meshing magnificently with Neige’s.
Two songs from latest album Spiritual Instinct, Protection and the glorious Sapphire, underline the fact that while signing to bigshot metal label Nuclear Blast may have disciplined their songwriting, it has in no way neutered their distinctive music.
A tad disappointingly, Oiseaux de proie is the only song from 2016’s excellent Kodama to survive in the set, which means that the encores are fairly predictable: the evergreen Autre Temps, which has the feel of a reworked ancient folk song (it isn’t) and is impossible not to sing along to, even if you don’t know the words; and the epic crowd-pleaser Délivrance from Shelter. Just watch them come back even bigger.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: October 2023
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