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Muse announce new album and autumn 2012 UK tour

Posted: 11 years ago
Album "The 2nd Law" to be released in September, arena shows follow in October, tickets on sale from Thursday 14th June
Muse

A cursory glance at the viewing figures for Muse's latest YouTube upload, a teaser for the new album "The 2nd Law", tells you all you need to know - the power-rock 'n' progstep trio are absolutely huge. 600,000+ views of a two minute trailer that was aired for the first time 18 hours ago is a measure of a band that has begun to trounce all that come before it. With a nod to U2's "Zooropa", Reggio and Glass' global filmic masterpiece "Koyaanisqatsi" and an aural amalgam of dubstep and 'wobble', the new sound has already been castigated by some viewers and absorbed by the more broad-minded. Whatever direction Matt Bellamy's charges choose to head in, they can't and won't please everyone - and it's all a far cry from their first submissions to plastic.

Formed in 1994, it took the Teignmouth threesome five years to finally unleash their first relatively overlooked product - debut-single "Uno" reached #73, the follow-up "Cave" #52 - before dipping their toes in turbulent fickle musical waters with "Muscle Museum". And then the floodgates were well and truly opened. If you've been to a Muse show at any point during their career, you already know that it's like going to a Greatest Hits party without there being a Greatest Hits available. Track-after-powerfully insistent track is discharged with electrical precision and all the subtlety of some starry-eyed classical mad professor detonating his own instruments. Boy, are they loud. And melodic. And excellent.

After the worldwide successes of the albums "Absolution", "Black Holes and Revelations" and 2009's glammed-up "The Resistance", Muse now turn their attention to global meltdown and "The 2nd Law", due for release in September. Quite a lot has been happening in the past few years, which should ensure plenty of hard-hitting, socially-aware sloganeering, mercifully bathed in unrelenting beats, riffs and Bellamy.

The band's first UK tour for three years has just been announced with the first arena show confirmed for Glasgow's SECC on 24th October, followed by two shows at London's O2 Arena and one show in each of Birmingham (NEC) and Manchester (Arena). We will have tickets (from £47.50) on general sale from Thursday 14th June at 10am. Needless to say, you'll have to be VERY sharp to get tickets.

Paul Pledger