A little less than two years, my social media algorithm repeatedly showed me short clips of an artist I had never heard of. At first I kept (doom)scrolling, but after a while I clicked on it and I a) found out that the artist was from Luxembourg and b) made music that I had never heard in our little country. A lot has happened since then for said artist, as she has gone on to win Screaming Fields in 2025, changed names, built a steadily growing following and is about to release her debut EP! If you haven’t put it together: I am talking about Blame Emeraude and her upcoming release Blame Her.
The genre that best fits Blame Emeraude’s style is dark pop, but there are a lot of elements of industrial and even metal present, as well. Which means that the mood ranges from very melancholic to highly danceable, before making you want to headbang…how can you not love that? Now, to the best of my knowledge, there is no other artist in our local scene that does anything even remotely close to her music and that easily makes it twice as enjoyable, because it simply feels fresh.
Instrumentally, these twenty-six minutes rely a lot on samples and sound effects, which definitely comes from the industrial side of the influences. While the drum beats are a major driving force, the thing that really spices up the package is the, at times, very heavy guitar play. Truly a blend of elements that never gets boring; even on the tenth listen some of the guitar parts still give me a case of heavy riff face.
Typical to the genre, the vocal performance is mostly overlaid with heavy effects and a lot of reverb to give a synthetic, almost robotic, feel, which perfectly fits the vibe of the music and never feels out of place. Now, one might assume that this is to mask bad vocals or anything of the sort, but let me reassure you: that is not necessary at all, because the moments where she unleashes her brilliant singing voice are definitely the standout for me, because her feel for simple yet, dare I say, haunting melodies is impeccable.
Lyrically, a broad variety of topics is covered during these seven songs, but the overarching theme is social anxiety, addiction and resentment of artificial intelligence. The latter is a point that is very important to the mind behind Blame Emeraude, as everything in relation to her persona is painstakingly human-made; which is another big plus point in my book.
All in all, Blame Her is a very solid first entry in a hopefully ever-growing catalogue of a promising new artist that has already managed to differentiate herself from most other artists. So, if any of that made you curious: make sure to head her Instagram profile and listen to the opening track of the EP below!