Time Lurker’s influence resurfaces.
Five years after his last release, Mick (instruments) collaborates with SOTTE (vocals), Déhà (mastering, Acathexis, Drache, Imber Luminis, Maladie, Slow, Wolvennest, Yhdarl…), Derek Setzer (artwork, Altars, Fuck the Facts, Huntsmen, Mord’A’Stigmata…) and label Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions, to create Emprise, his second album.
The hypnotic Emprise is the first to take the stage, and this short introductive track is perfect for putting us back into the band’s sultry mood with its ambient keyboards, before giving way to the haunting melodies of Cavalière de feu. Banshee’s howls accompany the rhythmic blaze, suffocating us in the frenzied charge before we are once again awed by the penetrating melody that surges around us, only to end and give way to Poussière Mortifère. We feel a different approach on this track, not least thanks to the gentleness with which it presents itself to us, reflected in the intoxicating harmonics coupled with the strident DSBM-infused vociferations in the background that sometimes abandon us for long instrumental moments. Disparais, soleil offers us an interesting vocal duet between despair and appeasement, which we also find in the track’s steamy Blackgaze influences, but the band returns to fury with Fils sacré, the last of the five compositions, which draws on Old School roots to give its as devastating as majestic rhythmic approach.
Time Lurker is an as dark as rich project, and seeing it back in action obviously touched my curiosity. Although short, the album Emprise is a real treasure of darkness, expressed in its own way in different forms, but all of which hit the nail on the head.
95/100