Shoegaze has become synonymous with My Bloody Valentine, making comparisons between any up-and-coming shoegazer rock outfits and Kevin Shields's legendary band inevitable. But if, just for a moment, you can put Loveless out of your mind and listen to A Coeur Leger Sommeil Sanglant on its own terms, you might find it to be quite an achievement. The band has an awkward name and even more awkward album title, but their mastery of guitar and effects layering is terrific, and their interlocking textures wisely avoid wall-of-sound clichés.

Destroyalldreamers don't have the same knack for powerful melody as some of their shoegaze predecessors, but the album's arrangements hold together very well, stretching comfortably through extended repetitions and builds. Thankfully, the group avoids uniformity in their songwriting; the funereal listlessness of the minor keys in "Zeta Reticuli Express" is nicely countered by "Orage"'s clearer-toned ascendant guitars and intricate drumming. "Victoire sur le Soleil" balances out the claustrophobia of some of the group's denser arrangements with airy layers and a measured pace.

There are no overtly weak tracks on A Coeur Leger Sommeil Sanglant, but a few of the suffer from over-extension, milking selected textures and phrases for all they're worth, and then some. The band is certainly adept at subtle variations and additions -- the entrance of "The Sky Was Glorious for a Moment"'s understated lead melodic guitar is a good example -- but sometimes they let the same thick soup swirl around for several bars at a time. It can be entrancing, but it's grating as well. There are a few awkward songwriting shifts, too, including disjointed key switches. These are rare mistakes, but owing to the strong quality of most of Destroyalldreamers' songs, they stand out even more when they occur.

Despite having room for improvement, A Coeur Leger Sommeil Sanglant is a self-assured, impressive effort. It takes a lot of guts to try your hand at a genre that, in most critics' minds, was definitively "nailed" a decade ago and is now teeming with third-string knockoffs. Destroyalldreamers' successful, often beautiful work is nothing to scoff at.