The debut album by rowdy Manchester trio, The Empty Page, has landed; and it packs quite a punch!

Creating similar sounds to Pixies and Nirvana, The Empty Page have quite the arsenal of musical sounds. Unfolding enters your ears with the track ‘In Patterns’ – not too hard-hitting, but nevertheless a well written tune with changes in rhythm and timbre. It really brings our ears closer to the speaker.

The tone of this record continues in this way, with driving drum patterns and grungy, distorted guitars playing broken chords, creating highlights such as ‘Big Wheel’ and ‘Deeply Unlovable’. However, ‘YoYo’ changes the pace completely – sounding  like something you would hear while watching the end credits of a movie, it makes you want to close your eyes and softly sway your head in time with the bass-line, which really pulls you into the song.

I really like the guitar lines on this record, the production is really raw and you can hear that lovely crisp live sound that’s been tweaked skillfully by the sound engineer, hitting that sweet spot, and the lead vocals have a really controlled tone, despite the aggression and angst-driven power of each track.

The Empty Page have offered a powerful debut that’ll leave you hungry for more, and if they can create a live sound like they have on this record, then their fans are in for a treat!

Unfolding, the debut album from The Empty Page, is out now.

Jimmy Ingham