I don't have too high of hopes after hearing empiricism...It sounds weak to me, far too synth/key oriented, with guitars too far back in the mix. And the riffs I hear don't sound at all like the folky riffs up through The Archaic Course, they sound more like 80's hair metal (though with enough individuality to keep them from sucking!). Vintersorgs performance is pretty much flawless, and sounds great, but the music sounds way too uninspired for my liking.....
Therefore: I have no idea what the future holds. Bands tend to release at least one mediocre album at some point, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed for the next album!