Empty Nesters are back with a furious new single, “Shangri Nah,” featuring James Clayton of Clay Pigeon, and it’s a searing taste of their upcoming EP Deaf Monks, out July 11.

Moving away from the hazy indie shoegaze of earlier days, Montreal’s Eric Liao has fully plunged into the world of hardcore punk.

“Shangri Nah” opens in full-on chaos, torn between screamo grit and hardcore urgency. “I have this constant need to do something with my life,” Liao shouts, setting the tone for a track that pulls no punches. It’s fast, cathartic, and charged with the tension of an identity in flux. The chorus hits hard with its aching refrain: “What’s it all for? Who am I now? I can’t take it anymore.” But just when the chaos seems to consume everything, the song opens up. A spiraling guitar solo rips through the noise, tinged with doom metal, stoner sludge, and psychedelic haze. It’s a moment of clarity inside the storm, a glimpse of something deeper.

Liao, who is Chinese and Vietnamese Canadian, brings his own experience of navigating identity into the sound and vision of Empty Nesters. There’s a real sense of searching here, not just musically but personally. “Shangri Nah” captures that ache, that rage, that need to scream something true into the void.

Headline photo: Stephanie Dinsdale

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