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Belgian extreme music band EMPTINESS have shared “The Clash of Forces”, the lead single from their forthcoming seventh full-length Nowhere Speaks, due July 17, 2026 through Season of Mist. The track is accompanied by an official music video.
Watch “The Clash of Forces” here:
“The Clash of Forces” is the first thing you hear from Nowhere Speaks, and it does not ease you in. The album describes a world beyond human reach, but this track is not about observing that world from a safe distance. It’s about transmission. The forces of “Nowhere” speaking through the band, through the performance, through the walls of the space where it was captured. The mystic imagery in the video is not atmosphere. It is evidence of intrusion, another layer pressing through into the visible. No distance between sound and source.
The track is also the first glimpse of what the recording process actually meant: the whole album, save for vocals, keyboards and additional effects, was played live in the studio, after four years of preparation, rehearsals, and tests to ensure the music could be performed with the right weight and intention. That is not a production detail so much as a commitment to a specific kind of tension, the kind that does not survive being assembled in pieces. Vide (2021) had no distortion, was sung entirely in French, and existed at the edge of silence; Nowhere Speaks moves in the opposite direction, and does so deliberately, opening exactly where Nothing But The Whole (2014) cut off mid-riff and closing by looping back to that album’s opening riff. “The Clash of Forces” is a way into the architecture EMPTINESS presents.
Tracklist:
1. Nothing but the Whole (Part 2) (01:19)
2. The Threat (04:07)
3. Nowhere Speaks (05:37)
4. Darkness Commands (01:02)
5. Words to Wind (08:24)
6. One Must See All (01:29)
7. When the Whole Arrives (05:43)
8. The Clash of Forces (03:08)
9. Next in Line (04:15)
10. All for Nothing (06:37)
Recording Studio:
Blackout Studio, Brussels, Belgium.
Production Credits:
Produced by Jeremie Bezier.
Mixed by Jeremie Bezier.
Mastered by Jeremie Bezier.
Authors & Composers — Jeremie Bezier & Olivier J.L.W.
Arrangements by Simon L., Dea Hydra, Laye Louhenapessy.
Cover Art:
Olivier J.L.W.
Photography:
Album band picture (booklet) by Océane L.
Nowhere Speaks does not ask to be understood. It asks to be entered.
Nowewhere Speaks is out July 17th, 2026 via Season of Mist.
ONLINE
LINEUP
Jérémie Bezier - Vocals, Bass
Olivier J.L.W. - Guitars
Simon L. - Guitars
Dea Hydra - Synths
Laye Louhenapessy - Drums
BIOGRAPHY/LOGO
Emptiness is a Belgian experimental metal band formed in 1998 in Brussels. Emerging from the European extreme metal underground, the band initially built its sound on a foundation of black and death metal, but quickly distinguished itself through a strong focus on atmosphere, experimentation, and artistic evolution.
From their earliest demos, Eternal Rising (2000) and Necrorgy (2002), Emptiness gained attention in the underground scene for their dark, introspective approach. Their debut album Guilty to Exist (2004) and its follow-up Oblivion (2007) established them as a force within the black/death metal sphere, combining aggression with a bleak and surreal aesthetic.
As their career progressed, Emptiness began to move beyond traditional extreme metal boundaries. With albums like Error (2012) and Nothing but the Whole (2014), the band embraced a more avant-garde direction, incorporating elements of post-metal, noise, and experimental sound design. This shift became even more pronounced on Not for Music (2017), where their music evolved into a haunting blend of minimalism, post-punk, and dark ambient textures.
Their 2021 album Vide represents the culmination of this transformation — a deeply introspective and claustrophobic work that explores themes of perception, isolation, and existential unease. Recorded in unconventional environments and largely self-produced, the album reflects the band’s commitment to artistic independence and sonic exploration.
Lyrically and thematically, Emptiness revolves around darkness, introspection, and surrealism, often rejecting genre conventions in favor of emotional depth and conceptual cohesion. Over the years, they have evolved from a relatively traditional extreme metal act into one of the more boundary-pushing and unconventional bands within the broader experimental metal landscape.
DISCOGRAPHY
Guilty to Exist (2004)
Oblivion (2007)
Error (2012)
Nothing but the Whole (2014)
Not for Music (2017)
Vide (2021)
Nowhere Speaks (2026)
GENRE/COUNTRY
Avant-Garde Death/Black Metal
Belgium
