From Bandcamp, “Hailing from San Francisco’s dynamic metal scene, EMBRIUM merges the atmospheric beauty of shoegaze with the intensity of black metal, creating a sound that is as hauntingly ethereal as it is visceral. Immerse yourself in “Timekeeper,” the latest full-length album. Blending the ethereal soundscapes of shoegaze with the raw power of black metal, “Timekeeper” takes listeners on a haunting journey through themes of time, loss, magic, and self-discovery.” The album has eight songs, and “The End of the Lane” is first. It opens with soft and gentle clean guitars that are quite somber, but the bomb that follows strikes without any warning, and the two opposing styles wrestle with one another from there. “The Witchening” has a similar entrance, but layers are added, and the sound is quite charming. Although it has filthy Black Metal vocals, the melody rides through it like a web of golden fabric, intertwining beauty and death. The clean vocals really help the melody keep its foot in the door as well. “Dream Hunters” has dreamy vocals and ethereal riffs combined with groovy bass notes. Harsh vocals try to stain the song with blackness, but they are washed away from the gorgeous melodies.

“Hyperion” goes the other direction, exploring a hole in the earth all the way to the abyss that lies deep beneath. All the way down however, the progress is impeded with the firm hands of a shining white figure representing light, and this paradox is perhaps represented best in this song. “Eclipse” has more dreamy clean vocals but the music is both firm and angry at times. The harsh vocals keep the latter feeling alive, as do the mean riffs, while the cleans try desperately to hold them at bay. “Awakened” embraces the light out of the gates, and it comes in like a sunrise on a warm summer morning. The music keeps a tight grip on melody, while the harsh vocals blow like a violent storm on the mountainside. Continuing in that vein, “The Chantry” also offers beautifully melodic tones over a strong bed of firm guitar tones and harsh vocals that somehow just seem soothing to me. It may be the way they combine with the cleans. The final song is a cover, titled “Televators.” I have never heard the original version, but their take on it is wonderful. The harsh vocals roar like a hurricane but the structure of melody underneath does not waver. Ultimately, this album is not merely an exercise in contrasts, but a testament to their coexistence. It is the sound of light struggling against darkness, of sorrow dissolving into fury, of something fragile refusing to break. This is Black Metal at its most sublime—both a dream and a nightmare, both ruin and rapture.