When life was loud

Total Guitar December 2003 (Issue 117)  As anthemic as it is experimental, Absolution is Muse's greatest achievement yet. Matt Bellamy tells us about taking chords apart, getting the ultimate tone, and the making of a masterpiece.   It starts with the sound of massed armies approaching, and ends with a single dying power chord. It's called " Apocalypse Please " and it's the opening track on Muse's extraordinary new album, Absolution . From here on in it's a non-stop lunatic ride through some of the grandest, most unashamedly epic guitar music ever created, taking in mournful death marches ( Blackout ), sound-and-fury riffing ( Stockholm Syndrome ), as well as thunderous end of the world anthems ( Time Is Running Out ).   In the months leading up to the album's release, Matt Bellamy told the press that the coming Muse record would be more 'uplifting' than previous efforts. We needn't have worried. From it's portentous opening bars to its...

Portsmouth Evening News - Monday 13 December 1999   JJ72 - October Swimmer (Lakota): There haven't been many new bands to rave about this year, but JJ72 are definitely one. At first listen, names such as Radiohead, Mansun, Muse, and even Suede bandy themselves around in your head, but the fact is they aren't quite like any of them. Link to original article (subscription required to view) Muse archive index

2000 KARINA: Hello again... (She introduces Muse, and we cut to live footage, and then the interview. MATTHEW is holding the microphone) CHRISTOPHER: Hello, my name's Chris DOMINIC: My name's Dominic MATTHEW: My name is Matt, and we're from a band called Muse DOMINIC: And we would like to say hello to the viewers of Webfree TV END OF AN ERA? (DOMINIC'S NAME IS SPELT "DOMENIC" - EVERYONE ELSE GETS DIMINUTIVES I.E. "MATT" AND "CHRIS") DOMINIC: I think five times we've been to Austria? Something like that? I don't know. Maybe they're going to miss some sort of end of "Showbiz", some sort of end of an era. Anyway...because you know we're just about...we're going to come back next year with a whole load of new songs, and um won't be playing as many old songs as we are now so, they're just going to miss the end, not the death, just the end of "Showbiz". (Everyone chuckles) DOMINIC (dramatic whisper)...

Sunday Life  Sunday 28th December 2003 (Taste/EastWest):  Muse delivered the purest rock'n'roll thrills of the year as they married a new found maturity and discipline to their previously unrestrained melodrama and ambition. The results were concise, dynamic, and almost absurdly exciting. Link to original article (subscription required to view)

(Sorry about the quality of the picture. The footage is over twenty years old, and trying to clean it up with the limited tools I have, does not make it look any better) 2001 dotmusic.com  Q: What's the mood in the band when you finished touring, and got back in the studio? MATTHEW: I went swimming. I went on holiday for a while. DOMINIC: We had a little bit of time off to sort of relax after touring hard, so...I think..,well, we went in the studio in October straight after tour, straight off festivals, and we did a few tracks with Dave Bottrill... MATTHEW (teasing his enthusiasm): And that was "All right, what have we got to do this year, boys? Let's make a plan. Let's make an album to remember." Do something that has got to be remembered for the rest of time...let's change the face of music...that was our general approach...with that sort of approach...literally that approach...do you know what I mean? With like, yeah, on the one hand, we are having a bit of...

Rhythm Magazine Slipknot’s masked sticksman, music obsessive and multi-instrumentalist constantly tops polls as one of the world’s finest exponents of modern metal drumming The metal drum superstar was voted Greatest Drummer Of The Last 25 Years in a 2010 Rhythm poll. Joey’s a busy man, too, playing not only with masked metal madmen Slipknot but his own band Murderdolls and Rob Zombie, sometimes on the same gig... Q: Joey, is it odd to find yourself considered as influential a player as the guys you grew up listening to? JOEY: It is, totally. It’s weird to realise that when I put something out - with any band I play with - the fans study it, just like I did with Black Sabbath or Mott The Hoople or Iron Maiden or Slayer. They’re totally into it and it’s a great feeling. Q: You have said that you're obsessed with music. JOEY: It’s an addiction man. Music really does fuel me, it’s my lifeblood. I wake up and it’s there - I’ll have a random song running through my head first thing in t...