ARTIST: Muse
ALBUM: Drones
LABEL: Warner Bros.
RELEASE DATE: June 5, 2015
Roots Return
Written by Silas Valentino
Contemporary progressive rock’s most ambitious trio return with their seventh offering on the paranoid concept album Drones. The album’s twelve tracks come tailored for the arena stage with crushing choruses and Queen-recalling drum fills. Muse’s last record, 2012’s The 2nd Law, had the English lads exploring the electronic aspect of their ensemble but they appear to have abandoned that with Drones, returning to their guitar riff-rocking roots. Muse are already one of the biggest names in rock and they’re not easing off the gas pedal.
“Dead Inside” opens Drones and immediately welcomes listeners to the twisted world Muse creates in order to tell their story of the classic hero’s journey from lost hope to an inevitable rise up. Over a boom-clap, drum-heavy lead and singer Matt Bellamy’s falsetto pipes, “Dead Inside” is a quintessential Muse moment that rocks as much as it is provokes with its lyrics as Bellamy howls: “I see magic in your eyes/On the outside you’re ablaze and alive, but you’re dead inside.” Is this a song about love or the turmoil brooding inside? Regardless, it’s a relentless bash.
The most incendiary riffing comes in on the following number, “Psycho,” with a crunchy lick that could go toe-to-toe with some of Metallica’s earliest hits. The track opens with a frightening monologue from a drill sergeant beating away any humanity left in the album’s nameless protagonist. While Bellamy lays down his catchy lead guitar, Muse sacrifices their pop music elements for full-throttled, teeth-barring wreckage.
One of the shortest tracks on Drones is the piano-led “Mercy.” If this album was performed with actors in a theatre, “Mercy” would be the monologue moment where the protagonist pines for redemption from the hysteria-riddled world that swallows him. While “Psycho” gave away any catchy pop feelings, “Mercy” picks it right up and could land smoothly on the rock radio circuit – as it has in the promotional soundtrack to the popular Batman video game Batman: Arkham Knights.
“Reapers” is a clean, six-minute livewire featuring Bellamy’s fast-paced guitar tapping, calling to mind a Van Halen eruption. He throws his vocals through some manipulated reconfigurations, turning his smooth delivery into a scorched display. The final minute and half turns to doom where the distorted arrangement falls like bombs while an alarm is (literally) raised. Muse are detailing the apocalypse and the result is vivid.
The penultimate song is the ten-minute epic “The Globalist.” Like a cowboy riding into uncertain fate, the track begins with a gentle, whistling melody that sets a calm scene, almost tranquil, before bleeding into whelping slide guitar transfixion. Muse spin a few depressing versus (“You were never truly loved/You have only been betrayed/You were never truly nurtured/By churches of the state”) until a countdown from ten blasts “The Globalist” into a frenzy. We imagine our protagonist battling the demons – inside and out – before fading out with the album’s closer, the title track “Drones,” marked by its layering of angelic voices that elevate this album into the light. 53 minutes later the songs are over and the story is silenced, and it’s up to you to decide if this is a tragedy or success.
Muse have perfected their take on epic rock music and it’s glorified throughout Drones. There’s no need for a folk album from Muse or any sort of unexpected music left turn – Muse sound delighted with their arrested arena assaults. It’s almost as if Muse have barged into a movie house to present their theatric Droneswith its imagery and narrative arc. Few bands can tell spin fiction with a rock ‘n’ roll sword but then again, few bands have the severe clout like Muse.