Hysteria Muse

Japanese edition with bonus track.
Though some may still consider them Radiohead mimics, obviously Muse continues to strike a nerve with their alternative hard rock audience, here releasing their third album of heavy guitars, haunted harmonics, and paranoid musings in Absolution. Frontman Matt Bellamy and company stick to the same disturbed, and sometimes disturbing, formula that's worked in the past: the emotional intensity and style of Radiohead, a rock thunder descended from Black Sabbath, and the baroque drama of Queen. Longtime producer John Leckie sits this one out, and in steps indie über-engineer Rich Costey. With Costey manning the desk, the music feels more polished and slick, but less epic and raw…

Though some may still consider them Radiohead mimics, obviously Muse continues to strike a nerve with their alternative hard rock audience, here releasing their third album of heavy guitars, haunted harmonics, and paranoid musings in Absolution…

The Drones World Tour] was a worldwide concert tour by the English rock band Muse. Staged in support of the band's 2015 album Drones, the tour visited arenas and festivals throughout 2015 and is the tenth concert tour the band has carried out. It began on 23 May 2015 in Norwich, England at the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. The tour has grossed $23M from 34 shows in 2015, plus $65.5M from 64 shows in 2016…

Whether you view them as dynamic rock & roll rulers or overblown Radiohead knock-offs, it's hard to contend with Muse's strength as a live act. H.A.A.R.P. shows the band strutting its stuff in front of a sold-out audience at Wembley Stadium, with a set list that relies heavily on 2006's Black Holes and Revelations but still dips into the band's back catalog. The accompanying DVD gives a flashy, glitzy face to the music, and the refreshing lack of lightning-fast camera editing helps boost it above the band's previous CD/DVD combo, Hullabaloo Soundtrack. Still, the audio disc holds up quite well on its own, both for its crystal clear sound quality as well as the band's confident performance…

For years, the easy point of comparison for Muse and their brand of driving rock was Radiohead, but as the trio has grown, it became clearer and clearer that the sound they were really striving for was something akin to the pure spectacle of Queen. To their credit, Muse have done a fine job of growing into their ambitions, and even though studio albums like The Resistance really show off their more theatrical qualities, the enormity of their sound is best captured in the live setting. With Live at Rome Olympic Stadium, the British band does just that, bringing its massive, intricate sound to bear on a crowd of over 60,000 frenzied fans. While their previous live outing, H.A.A.R.P., features a stronger set list, Live at Rome Olympic Stadium wins in terms of grandeur.