Review by Nathan on June 24, 2026.

There are a few hints that Emptiness was a more straightforward extreme metal band at one point, but all of the obvious trappings of the genre are avoided. There's no growling or shrieking as you might typically hear, as it's been replaced with a sneering, rumbling whisper. Gone are the rock beats on steroids, replaced with a minimal, wandering drum performance that is rarely even the slightest bit energetic. There isn't even really a focus on guitar riffs that early Emptiness albums had. The bass gets a lot of time to carry the melody. There are still moments where the guitars take center stage, mind you. They mostly consist of drifting, aimless tremolos and chord progressions that use black metal as a template, but take things in a completely different direction. Oranssi Pazuzu's eerie, cosmic vibe is one of the few bands I can compare this to (check out the carnival-esque feel of "Ever"), but even those loopy Finns still have their moments where you're like "okay, weird as this is, it's still a black metal band". I never really get that with Emptiness. Slowly shifting synths provide the atmospheric backdrop, and every other element of the music comes forward and dissipates just as gradually, with none of the immediacy or aggression one would expect out of extreme metal's aesthetics.

Now, Emptiness has always been a bit odd, but I want to emphasize that this has even fewer remnants of a conventional death/black metal sound than Nothing But the Whole. Even their previous album had a bit of a thicker tone and a few more tangible riffs that you could sink your teeth into, but this just takes all the weird and unsettling traits of that album and magnifies them. Emptiness absolutely loves the anti-climax, and they use that trait very frequently (almost to the point of abuse) in Not For Music. At least once per song, they'll create a leading guitar passage that sounds like it's going somewhere, builds in tension a little bit, gets you hooked...and then they just stop. You're there, on the edge of your seat, waiting for something to happen...and they just go back into another leading, dissonant clean guitar passage to take you right back to where they started with no resolution. Nothing But the Whole resolved that tension, but even moments where some bigger chords kick in (see "Digging the Sky") on Not For Music enter unexpectedly and leave without really making an impact. The art of the anti-climax is not only seen on individual songs, but on the album as a whole. Not For Music always sounds like it's going somewhere, but once the album's finished, you realize it didn't go much of anywhere. The final track has a very brief moment where things finally pick up a bit, but it seems like too little too late by that point, and they still dial it back by the conclusion, so the album still ends on an anticlimactic note.

To me, this falls into that rare category of black metal occupied by bands like Ved Buens Ende, Oranssi Pazuzu, and the most recent Furia album. This small subcategory of black metal defines the genre by playing with its negative space--they demonstrate what black metal is by showing us what it usually isn't. Not For Music is still creepy and theatrical in a way that pretty much all black metal since 1993 has attempted to do, but it arrives there without being heavy, abrasive, or energetic. I'm not sure if there's a hidden influence at play here; perhaps some strain of post-punk or ambient music I'm not familiar with is playing a huge role in shaping the sound of this album, but I'm just grasping for straws at this point. For the most part, Emptiness is primarily an extreme metal band with extreme metal influences; they just sound...different.

I've been trying to avoid making a definitive statement about whether this is a good album or not throughout this review because...I'm still not really sure whether or not I enjoy this myself. At first, I didn't really get it at all and intended to give it a sub-par score, but it's grown on me a little bit as I become more familiar with its strange tricks. That being said, I don't enjoy this while it's on. I'm not groovin' along or banging my head. I'm just given this general feeling of unease as the songs pass by. It's interesting, no doubt. Might be the most interesting and unique album I've heard in a little while, but is this something that's utterly fascinating and demands I give it hours of my free time in the next couple of weeks? Probably not. It's just a little bit too off-putting and outside of my comfort zone. If you value originality and thinking outside the box more than any other aspect of music, Not For Music is a masterpiece. For that reason alone, I would recommend you check this out at least once, but with the caveat that you might not like what you hear. Are you willing to take that risk?

Rating: 6.7 out of 10

Review by Adam M on February 7, 2017.

Emptiness performs a morose form of metal that is very much what Katatonia would be like if they played darker.  The songs are brooding and take time to develop.  There is a very dark atmosphere to the songs on display here and they have the ability to arch over top of you with this aspect.  The music is nice for a certain mood that is more foreboding and evil. 

The singer of these songs has a deep voice that is appropriate for the type of music being performed, but somewhat strange.  The entirety of the tracks has a very hollow sound that is conducive to the type of atmosphere the band is going for.  This is appropriate and matches the aims of the band.  They are certainly going for a depressing feeling with the songs and the claustrophobic aura accompanies this nicely.  The problem with the album is that it is at times too sparse and seems to drag on for periods of time.  This happens several times during the tracks and brings them down from a higher plane to a slightly lower one.  The lack of consistency with the mood means the band is unable to match Katatonia’s better music and is relegated to a second tier in stature.  The track It Might Be is a highlight with its dark and encompassing atmosphere. 

The band is able at times to maintain this mood, but often the music feels like it's just stretching out moments that aren’t as strong as the remainder.  So, while there is some effectiveness to be found, one would wish for the band to be more unvarying in its moments that are able to bring out the darkness effectively.  As such, Not For Music only gets a moderate recommendation to those looking for atmospheric metal that has similarities to Katatonia and My Dying Bride. 

Rating: 7 out of 10