Bleurghghrgh. How can they churn this out after producing something as good as Dead Inside just a few years ago...

I remember people use to get really aggy about Muselive's slogan, 'rock for clever people'. Muse make rock for dumb people, that just so happens to be just complex and intriguing enough to snare more clever people. We're the problem, I think. Matt's pseudo-scientific/theoretical bollocks has been laughable for the best part of two decades now, since BH&R. Showbiz was raw, angsty and immature, Origin was a mushroom trip, Absolution a (loose) political awakening, all three of which reflected the band's age and development at that time. At some stage, the development stopped and we got stuck in this feedback loop of extremely limited, shallow critical thinking. BH&R may as well have been called Exo Politics and 10 other conspiracy theories for beginners. Rinse and repeat that for the next 15+ years. Remember Terrorstorm on the t-shirt at Reading? In retrospect, that was a total embarrassment. But Matt somehow seems impervious to this stuff. But as I said on the last page, none of his writing comes across as him lampooning any of this nonsense, rather it comes over as egging it on.

Also, I think Matt's problem with writing about some of this conspiracy theory nonsense is not so much the interest in it or writing about it, it's the completely opaque way in which he does it. It doesn't read or sound like someone questioning it, challenging it or debating it, it reads/sounds like someone espousing it which is more problematic.

Closing with something like We Are Fucking Fucked reminds me of how Biffy closed their latest album with something equally odd in Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep.

From everything we know/we've heard so far, I can't quite tell yet if I think we're heading down the Resistance 2.0 route or Drones 2.0. It all borrows heavily from those vibes.

My mind went straight to Marilyn Manson. Will of the People must be the album title, going by the graphic they’ve used on everything so far.

All three are utterly superb bands. Mastodon really deserve to be one of the biggest bands on the planet, the journey their music has undergone over the past 20 years is remarkable. Leviathan through Emperor of Sands are all 8 or 9/10 albums, I particularly like Once More Round The Sun for that Motherload/High Road combo. Emperor of Sand has so many high points too. I'm a little disappointed by their latest effort Hushed and Grim, if only because it feels a little bloated. Fun fact though; H&G was produced by Dave Botterill, who produced Origin of Symmetry. Deftones are consistently brilliant and have been for two decades too. And I regularly go back to Red by Baroness. Few other suggestions for you if not already on your radar, really 'metal' so to speak, but all beefy: Amplifier – Amplifier (self-titled); Arcane Roots – Melancholia Hymns; Black Peaks – Statues; Cave In – Antenna; Kyuss – Sky Valley; Monster Magnet – Spine of God; Oceansize – Frames; Porcupine Tree – Deadwing (although In Absentia, Lightbulb Sun and Stupid Dream are all 10/10); and Turbowolf – The Free Life And I recommend everyone giving Opeth a go at some stage. You'll love them or hate them, but Blackwater Park is truly one of the best metal albums of all time.

Just saw this pop up in my FB feed. Looking at it, might it hint at stage design for the inevitable massive arena tour? The 45-degree square stage, the entire floor being lights/screen (Tool have done something similar in the past, iirc) and then some wires/etc to dress the backdrop. Crowd out front of shot, ofc.

TMV are the mutt's.

Origin - 9.8/10. Oh so very nearly flawless. Feeling Good can still do one though. Absolution - 9.5/10. Not a single wasted song on this album, and would have been even better with Fury. Nothing matches New Born or Bliss though. Drones - 7.1/10. The high points are very good indeed, and the flow through to Revolt is great. Aftermath/Globalist are abominable, and it's all just a bit too silly overall. Showbiz - 7/10. Great debut. The good songs are as good as any they've ever done, Muscle Museum, Showbiz, HTAILY. Sober/Overdue/Escape – meh. Black Holes & Revelations - 6.5/10. Again, the highs are top notch. Take A Bow, Map, City of Delusion. But Exo-Politics is weapons grade shite, and the silliness of Knights still winds me up. The Resistance - 5/10. Just a bit dull. MK Ultra and Unnatural Selection are fun though. Simulation Theory - 3/10. Just about worth the effect for Algorithm and The Void (although both fail to live up to their potential) and The Dark Side. Propaganda and Break It To Me are fun. The rest – dreadful. The Second Law - 2.5/10. It's got Big Freeze and Explorers on it. It's a mess.

Tbh, Drones gives me more consistent enjoyment of any Muse album since Absolution. In album order context, the run through to Aftermath is great (excluding Aftermath which is where the wheels firmly come off. The Globalist is just cack). I still unashamedly love Revolt. But Dead Inside, Reapers and Handler are A++ Muse, and there are fewer moments of A++ Muse on any of their other albums since Absolution. Maybe BH&R for Take A Bow, Map and City of Delusion.

Nooooooooo! Start with De-Loused In The Comatorium. It's the definitive Mars Volta album and by far the most succinct and spectacular. All their albums have their moments, and I'd definitely recommend giving Frances and Goliath a go, but start with De-Loused. If you don't like De-Loused – TMV at their most focused – you'll find their other albums more difficult. I'd go so far as to say De-Loused is the best full-on prog album of this century so far.

It's basically just a mash up of Undisclosed Desires, Dead Inside and The Handler. No bad thing. They should call the album Drones 2 just to troll this place.

This place is basically Royston Vasey.

Tbh, it feels long to me and it’s only 3m30s approx. Only bit I think could be longer are the pre-chorus riffs - they could hsve been doubled. But then it’d lose some of the punchiness.

Djent Inside.

This is nice: Will go live at 8pm tonight (UK). Five songs - they're in the video description on YT if you don't want spoilers (it's a damn good selection though).

+1 to all of that. All style, no substance any more. The mix is atrocious too, why is the volume so inconsistent? It sounds like every time the bass comes in, the volume of every other instrument kicks up a notch too, with the bass disappearing. The cymbals are almost unlistenably trebly too. I barely got to the end of Psycho before I had a headache from the cymbal crashes. You can barely hear Matt's guitar in Break It To Me either. Muse used to be exciting with minimal bells and whistles. Now they've got every bell and whistle they want, yet the shows are duller than they've ever been. I, for one, am delighted the dire Simulation Theory era is over. The boxset absolutely takes the piss too. Burn it all down. Start again.

This looks abysmal.

Can't stand the vocal on Unintended at all.

New Born riff Muscle Museum bass line Bliss synths / organ Dead Star soundtracking the ads for Kerrang mag Stockholm Syndrome release and the solar camera video The launch of the old white Muse website (pre-Absolution, iirc?) The hype for Earls Court

I will never understand this board's aversion to the 'flow' of Absolution. I'd put it on par with OOS as the best Muse album for flow. Showbiz doesn't really have a flow of any sort, and the rest are horrible. BH&R, T2L and ST are janky as hell. I mean, TaB, Starlight, SMBH, Map, Soldier's Poem, Invincible, Assassin, Exo is excruciatingly shonky, although CoD, Hoodoo and Knights is tres nice. Where do you even start with the flow of T2L? The flow of Absolution is also greatly boosted by the strong theme of the album, the segues, the consistency of tone, lyrical content and core sound/genre, and the strength of the songs. I actually prefer it to Origin in flow terms. I can imagine Absolution being an incredible journey live.

Sounds or genre hasn't been Muse's issue for the past decade; it's been quality of songwriting. Outrageous compositions and production has masked a massive gap in quality songwriting. If I cast my mind back to T2L, Drones and ST, the ONLY absolutely stellar, world class, quality bit of songwriting from that entire period – for me – is Dead Inside. I'd put that song alongside Plug In Baby, Hysteria and Map Of The Problematique as being a Muse song that will endure. I relistened to T2L recently and frig me, it is dreadful. Really really really quite extraordinarily dreadful.

Did Matt/Muse ever put a full version of Pray out?

Chris's bass tone in SMBH is absolutely godly. Nice stuff. Agree with all the entitlement bullshit earlier, get over yourselves. This is a nice fun bonus during these times.