ALCEST’s performance of ‘Protection’ is the current single from Live At Hellfest 2022, with a public YouTube video supplied alongside the announcement. The French duo’s first-ever live album will arrive December 4, 2026, through Nuclear Blast Records.
Recorded at Hellfest in France, the album documents a set spanning material from ALCEST’s 2007 debut, Souvenirs d'un autre monde, through 2019’s Spiritual Instinct. ‘Protection (Live At Hellfest 2022)’ provides an advance listen to that live release; the announcement does not give the single a separate release date.
The recording brings together the ethereal melodies, expansive atmospheres and emotional intensity described in the announcement. Its repertoire draws across the band’s catalogue, presenting their blend of black metal, shoegaze and post-rock in a festival setting. The supplied listening recommendations also place ALCEST within atmospheric metal, post-metal and blackgaze.
Principal songwriter and frontman Neige approaches ALCEST as a means of exploring spirituality and the otherworldly. Long-serving drummer Winterhalter completes the duo and is described as Neige’s creative confidante. That background accompanies a release focused on how the band’s music translates to performance.
Neige describes an enduring sense of being outside established musical scenes: “In the metal scene ALCEST is a weird band, in the indie/post-rock scene ALCEST is a weird band- we never quite fit in,” he reflects. “This is how I feel in life, always an outsider; It’s not a problem, it’s just the way it is.”
