Underground Sounds: Emptiness – Not For Music

Label: Seasons of Mist
Band: Emptiness
Origin: Belgium

It’s not my habit to pick out just any black metal band and truth be told, I have been struggling to write about this record for a while. Emptiness is not your average black metal band and their music is quite something else, specially on their latest feat of strength ‘Not For Music’.

I saw them play live at Eindhoven Metal Meeting,  so I knew I was in for something different with this album. Featuring members of Enthroned, ProPain and drone-bient act Ashtoreth, you have some eclectic flavors mixed in your bowl. The result balances ambiance and darkness. A dish full of flavor you might say, this spectacular album. Combinging postrock, black metal and something akin to goth into a dark but accessible pool of intriguing and wonderful music.

Inhale deep and dive into the music, which opens with eerie synths with a peculiar nineties vibe. ‘Meat Heart’ takes its time to get going, but does so with a dark tapestry of processed electronics and a calmly booming drum. The whispered voice is a bit remniscent of the goth rock scene. The voice combines with the synth waves wafting through, which is also peculiar. It works very well though. The musicians build up tension and a oppressive atmosphere. There may even be a bit of nostalgia woven in there (the synths are Burzum-esque, the  dull drum evokes images of shady eighties video clip settings). The languid tones, the continuous tension and gruff, deep vocals are perhaps not your average brutality, but it does do the job of captivating listeners.

It’s peculiar how the band simply drags you along into their soundscapes. It takes you to where only the vocals offer you that true darkness. The patterns in the music may be a lot like black metal, but it is as if every bit of void between the riffs has been filled with sonic clay to create a thick, condensed series of melodic slabs. What comes close to the feel of this music is the last Katatonia album, although that’s more organic than the urban despair of Emptiness. Everything about the album triest to get you on edge, like that eerie opening riff of ‘Your Skin Won’t  Hide You’. The music really stays in the shoegaze/ambient spheres. It doesn’t need to move to any agressive riffing. This is so peculiar regarding their live sound, which is much more metal. On record these guys make you feel like you’re doing something secret, something sinister.

The album gets really dark dark on the atonal flurry of sound of the song ‘Let it fall’, bringing the album to its logical conclusion. Trust me, black metal has still not finished infesting other genres and combining into great materials. Emptiness delivers one hell of a record here!

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