The latter will be familiar to The Mars Volta fans, but had also worked with the likes of Fiona Apple and Philip Glass. This time they employed Paul Reeve, John Corfield and Rich Costey to handle production. The following album, 'Origin of Symmetry' was also produced by Leckie, but saw Muse becoming more experimental in the ways they created atmospheres Wind Chimes, Bones, Llama claws and bubble wrap are all used to create effects.Ī stream of awards and touring followed, and it wasn't until 2004 that Muse finally released 'Absolution'. Produced by John Leckie, who also produced Radiohead's 'The Bends', Showbiz drew a lot of criticism for its similarities with Radiohead, but nevertheless was successful - and the only real similarities lie in Matt Bellamy's vocal style. IN 1998, Muse released their self-titled EP, and the single 'Uno'.įollowing the success of their second single 'Cave', they released their first album 'Showbiz' in 1999. In October 1995, Dennis Smith discovered them playing in a Cornish village and eventually offered them free studio time. The name changed to Fixed Penalty, then Rocket Baby Dolls, and finally to Muse, following a 'battle of the bands' competition which they won despite playing music that was overtly aggressive and smashing everything on stage. Muse came together at the age of 13, although the band was then known as Gothic Plague. Muse comprise Matthew Bellamy (lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and pianist), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitarist) and Dominic Howard (drummer). And we always oscillate between those two things, and create something a bit different than both those things.” In 2022, they released their ninth studio album, Will of the People.Founded in Devon, UK in 1994 - Still active as of 2017 Speaking to Apple Music in 2015, singer Matt Bellamy recalled a night when bassist Chris Wolstenholme literally got stuck in an elaborate stage platform during a show-what Bellamy called “the Spinal Tap moment.” “There’s a seriousness in what we do,” Bellamy said. Still, the band has always maintained a good sense of humour about themselves. Though their approach has shifted and evolved over the years (the classical inflections of 2003's Absolution, the hard rock of 2015’s Drones, the electro sheen of 2018’s Simulation Theory), the core of their sound has stayed the same: Take something big and make it bigger. Formed in Devon, England, in the mid-’90s, the trio fashioned themselves as a modern answer to ’70s prog, mixing Queen-like arena rock with electronic music and glam, layering their sound with narratives about drone warfare, government oppression, the idea that we’re all just lines of code living in a program we call reality-blockbuster fantasies that restored rock to a state of wide-eyed wonder.

The stage never happened, but the point stands: Few bands go as shamelessly big as Muse. To get a sense of where Muse is coming from, consider that in 2016 the band was venturing to design a stage made of magnets so it would look like they were flying-like superheroes.

Muse albums