Time Lurker – Emprise

Time Lurker is one of those bands that you spin once and they immediately get under your skin – The music resonates with you, it becomes the background music to whatever it is you are doing at the current moment, slowly building up in ambience and atmosphere, dragging your conscious thoughts with it into a figurative ocean of tumultuous currents, intent to letting you drown in the sheer scale of its majesty. 

I am, in case the very high praise I just wrote down above isn’t a clear indicator of it, very biased as far as Time Lurker is concerned. I first stumbled across the Atmospheric Black Metal one-man act seven years ago when they released their first Full-Length album which I likewise gave high praise. Then, two years after that, they released a Split-EP with their fellow kinsmen Cepheide, yet another French Atmospheric Black Metal act that I likewise have a penchant for – Another album that I spoke of to the heavens and hells as well as anyone inbetween who were willing to listen. And now, after a five-year hiatus, the band has released their newest Full-Length record Emprise (French for ‘Grip’), just in time for their first decade anniversary. But that is not all that is new. 

While the band originally started out as a solo act, in the interim between the Split with Cepheide and this record Mick (the mind behind Time Lurker) teamed up with Sotte who took over both lyrical and vocal duties in the band. And despite my normal preference for solo projects (my experience being that a single, talented individual given free reign over the entire project usually yields more memorable results), I nevertheless found myself taken in and lulled back into the cosmic soundscapes of Emprise, just like I did with their previous releases – Both of these together seem to be a perfect match, to which the track “Cavaliére De Feu” (French for ‘Fire Rider’) below is a testament. 

I have always had a weakness for the very emotionally charged and expressive genres, whether it be lyrical, vocal or as a product of the instruments themselves, which is probably the primary reason why I am more often than not drawn to the Atmospheric Black Metal genre – It fulfills this niche to a tee, and the addition of my much-beloved French cultural touch is, as always in my book, a welcome addition. 

The album itself contains a grand total of five tracks, adding up to a runtime of thirty-three-and-a-half-minutes. Far too short for my liking but seeing as how it is both excessively well done and the first outing from one of my drugs of choice in half a decade, I will take it. 

Recommended for fans of Cepheide, Rance and The Great Old Ones. 

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