Spiritual Instinct

Spiritual Instinct is the sixth studio album by French post-black metal band Alcest. The album was released on 25 October 2019 through Nuclear Blast and garnered mostly positive reviews from critics. Spiritual Instinct features Alcest live bassist Indria Saray performing on bass in the studio for the second time in the history of the band after Kodama.

Spiritual Instinct
Studio album by
Alcest
Released25 October 2019 (2019-10-25)
StudioDrudenhaus Studio, Nantes
GenreBlackgaze, post-black metal
Length40:59
LanguageFrench
LabelNuclear Blast
Alcest chronology
Kodama
(2016)		 Spiritual Instinct
(2019)
Singles from Spiritual Instinct
  1. "Protection"
    Released: 23 August 2019 (2019-08-23)
  2. "Sapphire"
    Released: 27 September 2019 (2019-09-27)

Background and release

After the release of Kodama, Alcest's 2016 album, they departed from Prophecy Productions and signed with Nuclear Blast on 10 April 2019 in anticipation for the release of their sixth full-length studio album.[1][2]

Critical reception

Spiritual Instinct was released to a positive critical reception, with Metacritic, a review aggregation website that assigns normalised ratings out of 100, determined a score of 82 based on four critics.[3] Sam Law, writing for British rock magazine Kerrang!, gave a rating of 4/5, noting that while the album was fundamentally sound and well produced, it was inferior to Alcest's earlier work.[4] This concern was echoed by other critics, including Lukas Wojcicki of Canadian music publication Exclaim!,[5] and Jason Roche of heavy metal news site Blabbermouth.net.[6] Nonetheless, most reviewers concluded that the album was enjoyable and a worthy addition to Alcest's discography.[7][8][9]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Les Jardins de minuit (The Midnight Gardens)"7:53
2."Protection"5:49
3."Sapphire"5:00
4."L'Île des morts (Isle of the Dead)"9:04
5."Le Miroir (The Mirror)"5:31
6."Spiritual Instinct"7:42
Total length:40:59

Personnel
Alcest
Other personnel
  • Indria Saray – bass guitar
  • Kathrine Shepard – vocals on "L'île des morts"
  • Benoît Roux – recording, production, mixing
  • Mika Jussila – mastering
  • William Lacalmontie – photograph
  • Førtifem – layout, illustration, art direction

Charts
Chart (2019) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[10] 63
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[11] 92
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[12] 34
French Albums (SNEP)[13] 106
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] 12
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[15] 30

References
  1. "ALCEST Sign Album Contract With Nuclear Blast Records; Work Underway On Sixth Album". Metal Forces. 10 April 2019. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  2. Blum, Jordan (24 October 2019). "Alcest Deliver Exceptional Blackgaze Catharsis on 'Spiritual Instinct'". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  3. "Spiritual Instinct by Alcest". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021.
  4. Law, Sam (23 October 2019). "Album Review: Alcest – Spiritual Instinct". Kerrang!. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  5. Wojcicki, Lukas (24 October 2019). "Alcest Spiritual Instinct". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  6. Roche, Jason (2 November 2019). "CD Reviews - Spiritual Instinct Alcest". Blabbermouth.net. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  7. Garland, Robert (30 October 2019). "Review: Alcest - Spiritual Instinct | Sputnikmusic". Sputnik Music. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  8. Davis, Cody (27 October 2019). "Album Review: ALCEST Spiritual Instinct". Metal Injection. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  9. Jurek, Thom. "Spiritual Instinct - Alcest". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 7 June 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  10. "Austriancharts.at – Alcest – Spiritual Instinct" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  11. "Ultratop.be – Alcest – Spiritual Instinct" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  12. "Alcest: Spiritual Instinct" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  13. "Lescharts.com – Alcest – Spiritual Instinct". Hung Medien. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  14. "Offiziellecharts.de – Alcest – Spiritual Instinct" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  15. "Swisscharts.com – Alcest – Spiritual Instinct". Hung Medien. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
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