The band reached a mutually beneficial agreement with Jan Winterfeld and in April 2016, Pluswelt took over the band's booking, leading to Empathy Test performing two shows in support of German Synth Pop veterans DE/VISION in Leipzig and Berlin. Over the course of the year, the band also supported LCMDF (Sweden) and Avec Sans (UK) in London.

 

To coincide with their first European tour opening for Mesh (UK), Empathy Test self-released a new double a-side single, Demons / Seeing Stars, in September 2016, which featured two of what would become their most popular tracks to date. Released via digital, CD and on (7” picture disc) vinyl for the first time, the band quickly sold the entire run of 500 CDs and 300 picture discs. The CDs featured a Witch House remix of Demons by Sidewalks and Skeletons, who had supported Empathy Test on their UK tour in 2015, and a Deep House remix of Seeing Stars by MNYNMS.

 

Demons was ‘Track of the Day’ on XS Noize, who described it as “a stunning coupling of [Adam] Relf’s ethereal atmospherics on synth and [Isaac] Howlett’s distinctive, perfect aching vocal”.

 

Prior to the two-week European tour, Adam Casey left the band due to the growing level of commitment required. At the same time, co-founding member Adam Relf, who had also declined to join the previous UK tour, decided the European tour was also not something he had time for. Isaac Howlett then recruited drummer Christina "Chrisy" Lopez and keyboard player Jacob Ferguson-Lobo via adverts on Gumtree.

 

Main support on the Mesh tour was Industrial Pop act Aesthetic Perfection. After two shows, frontman Daniel Graves asked Empathy Test to tour the USA with him, something that would finally become a reality in 2019. Then Aesthetic Perfection keyboardist Elliott Berlin would also go on to be Empathy Test's on-off live sound engineer and stand in keyboard player.

 

The band rounded off 2016 with three German shows; two in support of VNV Nation, and a second headline show at Reithalle Strasse E in Dresden, Germany. VNV Nation’s frontman Ronan Harris described Empathy Test as “the solution to most of the world’s problems” as shown here in Empathy Test's December 2016 video tour diary.

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>>>2017