I'm late - I played Empath for the first time yesterday. As I said elsewhere, this thing is a beautiful, chaotic, glorious mess, and I think I love it at its best. At its worst, it's a bit tedious and overwhelming. The parts when I got exhausted reminded me of Luca Turilli's Rhapsody's Prometheus album - a genius artist going full bore and leaning heavily into the angle they're coming from, but sometimes maybe it's just too much.
So Genesis is cool, but Spirits Will Collide is forgettable (so is Borderlands), but sandwiched in between is this glorious triple combo of Sprite, Hear Me, and Why? - I didn't think the album could get any better after Sprite, but then Hear Me did just that, and then somehow I think I enjoyed Why? more. Sprite is beautiful, Hear Me is one of the most aggressive metal songs I've heard in a long time (without resorting to tryhard growls and death metal schlock). I deeply admire Devin and how he, again, leans heavily into whatever he's going for.
Requiem was okay but there's not much there. I haven't heard Singularity yet because I was exhausted by the time I got to Borderlands. I hope it's good.