Watch this! The Empty Page return with new single and video Dry Ice

Photo Credit: Debbie Ellis – A Supreme Shot

Finally! The Empty Page are back with a raging tune that still pulls the punches and weighs in as a heavyweight slab of punk grunge that will have you slathering for more says Wayne AF Carey…

Pre Covid I first caught The Empty Page at a Membranes & Friends gig at The Ritz and I could see why boss man John Robb had them on the bill. A firebrand threesome pulling out some grunge punk noise that got me all nostalgic for the days of Solar Race back in the 90s. A cranked up force on stage, a great debut album in Unfolding, the incendiary When The Cloud Explodes reviewed here and the powerful He’s Very Good At Swimming which tackles the subject of rape and victim blaming. Since then it’s been quiet without them, so what better than a blast of power from a group that have still got it and are preparing to release a second album early next year. This has a great rumbling bass from a cool as fuck Kel that builds into a cracking guitar riff from an even cooler as fuck Giz who knows a thing or two about his geetar. Kel and Giz explain what’s going on…

Kel says: “I was already feeling nostalgic for freer, easier times, late nights, chippy tea bus rides, when I started scribbling down ideas but the restrictions of the pandemic exacerbated that yearning for closeness to strangers. I still don’t think we’re quite back there with the freedom to mingle sweatily that we once took for granted. This song is a celebration of that ‘disco convulsion’”

Guitarist Giz adds: “We have started experimenting more with how we record our songs. On our debut album, it was all about the sound of a band in a room, not too much messing with that. On these new tracks, we’ve been playing with old Pro One synthesisers and bust up pianos. Experimenting more with layers of guitar sounds and other noises. It’s definitely a progression.”

What grabs my attention even more is the press shot taken in Eastford Square, Collyhurst. A derelict set of shops which was once a vibrant part of North Manchester and has turned into a mini ghost town. I had friends who lived there and if you pass this place it looks eery as fuck amongst the gentrified high rises that are still being built around it. A stark look at the past and the future…

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Words by Wayne Carey, Reviews Editor for Louder Than War. His author profile is here