Last weekend, I went to Empyre’s website and I bought six or seven copies of their CDs.
I already have their albums on CD and some also on vinyl, but news of recent weeks made me want to ensure I had back-up copies – and maybe even some extra copies I could gift tofriends in the months and years ahead. Maybe this exercise was a private, small statement of defiance from me; that this music will live on, that I will continue to advocate the music that has moved me and – irrespective of what tunes are uploaded or deleted from streaming sites -I will have the band’s catalogue that I can enjoy whenever I want to enjoy it.
This little weekend shopping spree followed a post from the band announcing a hiatus for Empyre – and the tributes paid by so many of their supporters on social media was both sad and very touching. For me, this was yet another step in what I regard to be a worrying, gradual trend in the new rock scene. Put simply, too many of the inventive bands have stopped – it seems like to many of the wrong bands are stopping. I think of the sparkling defiance of Verity White, the melodic songcraft of Theia, the musical bon viveur of Tarot Rats, the soulful majesty of Broken Witt Rebels, theatrical dynamism of As Sirens Fall, the southern energy of The Texas Flood, and the authenticity of Little Brother Eli. Add to that Aaron Buchanan, Gasoline Outlaws – the list actually goes on and on. I reflect on a new rock scene that, to me, has become so much more homogenous. The exciting diversity of styles and energy that I celebrated during my rockshow in 2016 has largely gone – as have a lot of the bands that stretched or diversified the artistic bandwidth of what rock can be in 2020’s Britain. Maybe it’s the obsession with chasing the numbers, being in the right influencer networks or fashioning a single release for tastes of the gatekeepers – I don’t know. Bands never go on forever and there any many reasons why they stop, but when too many of the truly creative trailblazers stop, then there is something fundamentally wrong with the scene.Commercially the scene can still be successful, but musically it becomes less interesting.
Anyway, back to Empyre: Beyond having my own toilet-roll-panic-buying kinda moment – in buying up a pile of their CDs – I thought it would be nice to use January’s album of the month review slot to celebrate Empyre’s emphatic musical craft. From doing some of the band’s first interviews, Great Music Stories and the radio listeners have always had a close bond with the band – and Empyre has always been celebrated: Twice Album of the Month, once Album of the Year winner, six-times band of the month, five-times single of the month – and voted into the top echelon of our Band of the Year shortlist every year since 2017. From this, it’s clear that the bond with Empyre has always been strong – but it has always been a bond based on the quality of the music, the intelligence of the arrangement and technical prowess of the playing.
So, for this (longer than usual) review, we celebrate the album catalogue from Empyre. It’s a catalogue we should continue to celebrate – and I will endeavour to update the 30 or so band interviews from the GMS archive to this site for listen again in the weeks and months ahead.
1. The powerful debut
“With Self-Aware a new sun rises on a new rock Empire” – these were the word’s I used to open my Album of the Month review on Empyre’s head-turning debut album release, a band that offered such a fresh counterpoint to an ageing rock scene.
By the time the debut album landed, I had been playing Empyre tracks for a long time on my Friday rockshow and many of the songs were already well-known to rockshow listeners, who had developed a deep connection with the band’s music and the run of really engaging interviews we had broadcast – the fun garden centre voiceovers are still talked about by some, 10 years on.
What was clear from this debut album was a statement of intent. There was a brooding intensity to the music, a crafted intelligence. This wasn’t music to jump and down to, this wasn’t rock that would be an easy win to a rock scene where many quite liked the new bands that sounded like the old bands. With Self-Aware landing, here was a band doing their own thing and on their own terms. I remember talking with the band after they were special guests for Tarot Rats at a Tunbridge Wells gig, eight or nine years ago – and we talked about their path. Empyre were not a classic rock band in the usual style and they shouldn’t change who they were in order to fit in with a comfortable norm. As a Marillion fan myself, Empyre were more red wine than lager, music to think about, without having to jump around – without the need for black t-shirts and all that regalia. 10 years on, when I got them an interview and session slot on Times Radio in London, Empyre were a perfect fit for this kind of station and audience – an exercise where it wasn’t actually easy thinking of the rising rock bands thatwould be the right fit. But Empyre were a perfect fit.
The debut album sign-posted a band with a true difference, and the strength of their catalogue will ensure it will be celebrated for its lasting difference.
You can read my original album of the month review for ‘Self Aware’ here:
2. Covers done with class
Listeners of my rockshow, and possibly other shows too, will know there was a lot more to Empyre than what’s on their studio albums. One of the special aspects for Great Music Stories was Empyre’s skill at delivering knock-out covers. So often with covers, bands serve up pale imitations of the original, whereas Empyre always seemed to make the songs their own. My Immortal deserves a special mention here; it was the first track that got a long run on the Friday rockshow and was one of those tracks that listeners kept on the airwaves, every week for such a long time. The arrangement and the vocal is knock-out and, even today, when it gets a cheeky play, the performance still delivers the magic you get from a first listen.
The band’s Bond cover was another special moment. Talked about during our interviews for months before its eventual release, when we premiered the song on the Friday rockshow it again got hundreds of requests in the weeks that followed. Again, the band put their DNA on the song and made it their own.
Without being too much of a tease, there are other cover songs out there, and if you would like to explore the full Empyre catalogue, do have a hunt for the covers they have done. It’s become part of their story and is a facet of their recording, where the band are probably best in class.
3. Acoustic Empyre
Anyone that’s followed the band will know that this is a keystone to their music identity. The band has issued an acoustic studio album and a live release too – both worth snapping up from their website while stock lasts.
My journey with the band, as a presenter and a reviewer, has always celebrated their acoustic output. Homegrown and Only Way Out had long runs with us as acoustic tracks long before the acoustic albums were released. During our lockdown broadcasting and the Wellbeing Festival, the band also shared full acoustic sets for listeners – somehow the stripped-back soul of their acoustic performances where right-time right-place for people stuck at home,listening to the radio during long periods of isolation. The Empyre music spoke to people – and at a time when it really mattered.
Do explore the Empyre acoustic releases from the Empyre Webstore at:
https://www.empyre.co.uk/product-page/live-unplugged-cd
https://www.empyre.co.uk/product-page/the-other-side-cd
4. Relentless
The band’s second studio album was a critical lift-off for the band. Signed to an impressive new label, the early singles garnered attention for Empyre from the bigger rock media – and there was a clear sense of evolution and growth for the band. The album opener Relentless was, at the time, a slow-burn for me but, over the years, has become one of my favourite Empyre tracks. Following our long association with Home Grown, Forget Me became the next widescreen opus that band gave me to trail on the rockshow. In addition, New Republic and Hit & Run became big playlist favourites and these songs imbued the growing connection the band was building with fans across the country. A lasting memory for me at this time was Empyre playing these songs on a beautiful early summer’s afternoon at LoveRocks Festival, a couple of years ago. Because of family commitments I could only pop down to the festival for a few hours, but a bunch of us got in the car and drove down specifically to see the Empyre set. They owned the stage and, knowing how much Jim and Simon loved the band, without doubt Empyre would have become regular headliners down on the south coast at LoveRocks HQ.
You can read my original album of the month review for ‘Self Aware’ here:
To pick up a copy of Relentless from the Empyre Webstore visit:
https://www.empyre.co.uk/product-page/relentless-cd
Final thoughts
So, there you have it – a brief review of Empyre’s recorded material. The reason for the band’s hiatus is not my business, I respect their privacy at this time and I wish the band members well. Whatever the future holds, the one certainty today is we have already a fine catalogue of music from the band to enjoy.
And we must remember that the thing with music – the thing that lasts, the thing that really matters – is the music itself. That is the gift that Empyre’s band-members have already givenus.
One of the reasons I took a hiatus from my rockshow a year ago is because I think the beautiful scene we love so often focuses on the wrong things. At times there’s an unhealthy obsession with numbers; often bands focus too much time on relentlessly being in our faces on social media – and there’s sometimes a sense that some of the bands that get on do so because they know the right people, or their people know the right people. All this is a practical (and necessary) business side of the scene and, yes, marketing is important. But it has to be about balance. Marketing isn’t the music and the point of being a music fan is to enjoy the music you like on its own merits. The numbers, the social tribalism (sometimes treating band loyalty as similar to what we see with football teams), the momentary chart positions (often powered by fan club multi-buys) all these things are fine, but they have no lasting legacy. As with Mozart, as with Miles Davis, as with Led Zep, the greats become the greats over time, because the music they create lasts the test of time – and it is only the music that delivers this. So, whilst I am sad that Empyre are on hiatus, I have no doubt their music will have lasting legacy.
People who discover Empyre’s albums in months and years to come will start journeys of discovery with it – and that’s why I went into the band’s site last week to buy more copies of their CDs. I’ll still be gifting their CDs to friends and influencers in years to come. Their music will stand the test of time, and it’s now down to us to keep the integrity, the class and the power of their music alive. With Empyre, the music stands tall and it lives on.
To visit the Empyre web store, click here https://www.empyre.co.uk
A small selection of interviews with Empyre over the last 10 years
Empyre at Tunbridge Wells with Tarot Rats
Empyre wellbeing series interview
Empyre: My Immortal interview
Empyre feature interview
First interview short
