Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs

July 3, 2009

Reviewer: Jesse

If this album should win anything this year, it should be “most beautifully confused” album of the year.  Neige and crew hammered out the first, and last, Amesoeurs full-length album in 2009 after a very promising EP in 2006 and a mostly forgettable split in 2007.  If you’ve been following Neige’s recent musical direction, you’ll know that his days recording black metal are all but gone and is now completely focused on the more emotional, post-black, shoegazing stuff (or however you want to categorize it) and I don’t think that Amesoeurs was the intended incarnation of this direction.  What seemed as more of a side-project while working on Alcest’s full-length, the reception towards the Ruines Humaines EP was probably too big to ignore, so an album was in order, but it would have to wait while Alcest was tended to first.

Back to my opening statement and considering that this self-titled debut was released two years after the Alcest debut (giving it plenty of time to sink in with the fans), I was more than intrigued to hear the separation between the bands, to hear how Neige would balance the two very similar styles without making one obsolete in the process.  Right from the start, the instrumental opener “Gas in Veins” gives you the impression that this is in fact going to be quite different.  It’s very dark and builds a great crescendo leading to the first song “Les Ruches Malades” which does not follow the vibe from the opening track, but does sound very Amesoeurs.  The first thing you’ll notice is that the female singer, Audrey, has been given sole vocal duties on the majority of the album and that they switch up her style throughout.  Some songs have her singing normally and others have the mic distorted and static-like while a few times, she completely spazzes out for a few seconds, screaming like a fool which sounds absolutely out of place and just weird.  Aside from that, she’s a very good singer and adds a lot to the mood of the album and is obviously the major aspect that separates Amesoeurs from Alcest, at least at this point.

Most of the songs have very poppy beats and clean guitar riffs, “Video Girl,” “Faux Semblants,” “Les Ruches Malades,” “Recueillement,” and “Amesoeurs” especially.  They’re all completely catchy and very well written.  There are however a few that break up the flow in a way that makes me wonder why they put them on the album, but since they did, what kind of message was supposed to be sent.  First is the song “Heurt” which is Audrey singing amid a blistering blast-beat and then “Trouble (Éveils Infâmes)” which is Neige doing a very mediocre Darkthrone impression.  Seriously, what was the point of this song?  There’s even a hidden industrial/electronic song at the end of the last track. 

The ebb and flow of this album does just enough to distract from the otherwise very impressive song writing found in a handful of the tracks.  Of the nine actual songs (there are two instrumental/intros), only five of them really shine in my opinion, but they shine extremely bright.  The rest seem like filler and lend credence to the report that they couldn’t agree on what the future direction of the band would be, hence the break up.  Although, if you ask me, I would venture to guess that Neige wanted to put out enough material for a full-length and call it a day so he could focus all of his time on Alcest, which he recently signed a multi-album deal for with his label.

Overall, and as I just mentioned, when this album gets it right, it’s beautiful and has a ton of conviction, but short attention spans will miss out as it’s easy, and understandable, to let something slip past you while you try to separate the head-scratchers from the ear-pleasers.  I guess it’s too bad that this is the end of Amesoeurs, but chances are (or were) that Neige felt that he was siphoning creative juices from Alcest in order to give brief life to Amesoeurs and had to choose.  I’m in the camp that feels like Alcest has always had more potential and hopefully that comes to light in the near future.

Release Date: March 10th, 2009
Label: Code666/
Profound Lore  Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Gas in Veins
2.  Les Ruches Malades
3.  Heurt
4.  Recueillement
5.  Faux Semblants
6.  I XIII V XIX XV V XXI XVIII XIX –
     IX XIX – IV V I IV
7.  Trouble (Éveils Infâmes)
8.  Video Girl
9.  La Reine Trayeuse
10.  Amesoeurs
11.  Au Crépuscule de Nos Rêves

Total playing time: 58:23

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