EMBR was formed in 2015 and quickly gained attention with their heavy, riff driven sound and captivating live performances. Their music draws influences from various sub-genres of rock and metal, creating a unique and powerful experience. They have released five EP's and one full length album showcasing their talent and creativity in the Doom/Stoner Rock scene. During the last half of 2023, a journey of singles and videos led to the next full-length album, titled “EMBR.” The album has ten songs.

“Black” is first. The sound is desolate, and the combination of clean female vocals and harsh male vocals is augmented with heavy riffs, but the song is clouded without a clear vision. “Leave Us” has a heavy, dissonant sound with spoken words of “leave us alone” said over and over again. The music is bereft of melody for the most part, and the sound lacks direction once more. “The Conflict” has clean female vocals that are not in unison with the music. The weighted bottom is thick with bass notes but again, the vocals are grating to the ears. “Yellow” is another mismatch of disconnected vocals with decent music supporting it. I rather like the music but could do without the vocals.

“Nomega” is an odd song, which I have come to expect on the album. This has not been an enjoyable listening experience so far at all. I like the political message of “End Cycle,” where it talks about the USA not being a democracy, but rather a constitutional republic, where we dictate what the government can and can’t do. The music, however, is pretty awful. “325” is a short snippet of a couple of minutes of a sleep riff that barely wakes up. The vocals? Pretty bad once again. “Corrupt” closes the album. It’s another underwhelming song. I hate being so critical, but the album has few redeeming qualities.

This album review’s critique has nothing to do with the gender of the vocalist. But in this case, they just don’t match the music very well. As I mentioned, the music is decent, but the vocals are constantly off key. Crystal has nice voice control, but am I the only one who hears the grating key dissonance?