Sylvaine

Official Website

Albums:

• Silent Chamber, Noisy Heart (2014)
• Wistful (2016)
• Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone (2018)
• Nova (2022)

Sylvaine is the one-woman musical project of half-American, half-Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Kathrine Shepard. She has a shoegazey post-(black) metal sound and does both beautiful, gentle clean vocals and shrieking growls/screams. As I said when I introduced her in the "what are you listening to?" metal thread, she's pretty much what you would get if Myrkur and Alcest had a baby. Spotify recommended her to me a week or so ago. I went in with no expectations, and I was immediately entranced.

I've listened to all four of her albums. None of them are bad, but if I had to choose, I'd say that her two newest albums are my favorites. In particular, I keep coming back to Nova, and no, not because she's nekkid (tastefully, I would say) on the album cover. Like most artists, I think that she has only gotten better over time as she has continued to hone her craft. I really like her.

Silent Chamber, Noisy Heart (title track from that album)


Earthbound (from Wistful)


Abeyance (from Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone)


Severance (from Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone)


Fortapt (from Nova - click here to watch on YouTube)

I Close My Eyes so I Can See (from Nova - click here to watch on YouTube)

Mr. Gregory, ever since I saw the "listening....." thread I fell in love with Sylvaine (literally) and now I'm trying to dig into her bio and listen to every song/album she released. I didn't know her, but then again, you can't follow every single band out there, can you ?!

Yeah, don't feel bad. I had never heard of Sylvaine either, and I've been listening to Myrkur since she first appeared in the black metal scene back in 2014.

I don't keep up with any specific music scenes as a whole/in general. I just listen to stuff as I stumble across it. I don't care how new or popular it is. If it's good, like Sylvaine, it's good, and I'm gonna listen to it.

∆∆∆∆∆∆ There's lot of good stuff out there worth listening to, it's just that you need to be selective esp nowadays. I mean, I still listen to old school metal and HR, but I welcome any new wimpless acts because I. don't wanna be stuck in the past ,!

It's been over a month, and I'm still enjoying the heck out of Sylvaine and her Nova album. It's only February, but I'll be shocked if she doesn't end up on my Spotify top 5 list at the end of the year. I love this girl.

Dissolution (click here to watch on YouTube)

She has another lover too........me