Manchester trio The Empty Page have built a reputation on refusing comfort. Across a run of releases, the band have tackled everything from climate collapse and billionaire excess to panic attacks, bed rot, victim blaming and the small emotional attachments that keep people going. Their songs don’t moralise so much as document, sketching modern life with blunt honesty and an ear for tension.

New single Death On Our Side, out 21st January 2026, continues that streak. It’s a song shaped by the creeping realisation that for many people, the future no longer contains security – just delay. Pension plans feel abstract, ownership unattainable, and survival increasingly conditional. The track frames that anxiety with gallows humour, presenting death not as an ending but as the only dependable constant left.

Recorded at Nave Studios in Leeds Death On Our Side is the second release tracked with producer Matt Peel (Eagulls, Dream Wife, Bodega). The partnership follows November 2025’s When We Gonna Run?, arriving just 18 months after the band’s second album, Imploding. There’s a clarity to the new material, balancing abrasion with moments of vulnerability, and continuing The Empty Page’s knack for threading punk urgency through more expansive textures.

Death On Our Side is out Wednesday 21 January 2026.

Live dates

• Thurs 22 Jan – Manchester, Gorilla (supporting Marky Ramone)
• Sat 31 Jan – Leeds, Handfest @ Brudenell (sold out)
• Sat 7 March – Brighton, Prince Albert (supporting Shallow Honey)
• Sat 14 March – Manchester, Louder Than War Live Fest @ Manchester Academy
• Weds 25 March – London, Blue Posts, Soho – Kick Out The Jams
• Sat/Sun 2–3 May – Shropshire, Loopfest