Review by Adam M on June 21, 2016.

Sylvaine performs beautiful post-metal that is similar to Alcest in style. This music has many ebbs and flows of emotion much like Alcest’s material. The perfect comparison would be a combination of Alcest with what was heard on Myrkur’s first album.

The music has a beauty to it that is pure and all encompassing. It is stripped down and straight to the heart, but this is also what allows it to have such tremendous impact. The music here is ethereal and very pretty sounding. The entire approach is a thing of beauty. It does transcend into black metal a bit more and gain a bit of harshness at times, but is often in the pretty mode. This sense of mood is nicely demonstrated on the first track Delusions alone. The vocals alternate between the clean and harsh styles at the appropriate moment and effortlessly glide over the music. Still, despite the contrast, the majority of the music is dominated by the soft mood overall. It has the ability to glide right over the surroundings in the most serene of manners. Wistful is actually highly similar to the music of Myrkur, though this has more of the shoegaze element present. This element is interesting, but not necessarily used in the entirely appropriate manner at all times. There are lulls in the music and they could be related to the use of black metal portions and shoegaze elements as well.

Still, the ethereal atmosphere is captivating more often than not with the music here. It’s the ingredient that elevates this from a pretty good recording to a great one. One might wish there was slightly more consistency to be found, but there is very little to fault with this recording. It has the right mood for practically any moment.

Rating: 8 out of 10