Muse – The 2nd Law

Review

'The 2nd Law' shows Muse shedding their skin and diving headfirst into a bizarre electronic hellscape that somehow still rocks harder than most mainstream garbage. Matt Bellamy and crew weren't content staying in their lane, smashing together funk grooves on 'Panic Station' with the kind of operatic rock bombast that would make Freddie Mercury raise an eyebrow on tracks like 'Supremacy' and 'Survival'. They went full dystopian nightmare with this one, tackling societal collapse while throwing electronic bass drops into their already massive sound.

This 2012 release is Muse at their most experimental and fearless, flipping the bird to anyone expecting 'Origin of Symmetry' part two. The album's got this wicked split personality - one minute you're getting their trademark arena-filling thunderstorms, the next you're lost in the haunting electronic wasteland of 'Unsustainable' and 'Isolated System'. Bellamy's voice still soars over everything like a banshee, cutting through even their weirdest sonic experiments. Some fans couldn't handle the direction, but that's exactly what makes 'The 2nd Law' such a raw statement - Muse refused to play it safe. - Nikki