Belgian extreme act EMPTINESS’ fifth album 'Not For Music' mixes early black and death metal influences with ambient soundscapes that are imbued with a sinister foreboding of something evil lurking underneath those often elegant textures and surfaces. Strings and electronics blend seamlessly into an overarching sound of rising darkness that embeds eerily rasping vocals that scratch along frayed nerve ends like the dry snakeskin whispering of claws gliding over ancient vellum filled with arcane symbols and forbidden knowledge. Yet far from dwelling in the distant past, this horror has firmly settled within the concrete, glass and steel vistas of a modern metropolis in our time.