Absolution by Muse

Absolution, the third album from English trio Muse, came out in September 2003, and it's the sound of a band deciding the end of the world deserved a proper soundtrack. Muse produced it with Rich Costey, who wanted them bigger and more aggressive, with extra production from John Cornfield and Paul Reeve. Most of it was cut at Grouse Lodge in County Westmeath, Ireland, with further sessions at AIR Studios and Livingston in London, Cello Studios in Los Angeles and Sawmills Studios in Cornwall.

It's pure grand opera on distortion: Matt Bellamy's guitar, keyboards and voice soaring and shrieking, Christopher Wolstenholme's bass rumbling like an earthquake with backing vocals on top, and Dominic Howard's drums crashing through the whole apocalypse. The lyrics brood on doom and endings, and classical music runs right through it, with an orchestra swelling up on "Butterflies and Hurricanes" and "Blackout". Effects, synthesizers and software twist the tracks into shapes rock bands usually don't attempt. "Hysteria" rides a bass line that gallops like a runaway horse, "Stockholm Syndrome" is a thrashing monster, and "Time Is Running Out" struts with a stop-start menace that finally gave the band a UK top-ten single, landing at number eight.

The album itself went to number one in the UK, and "Sing for Absolution" joined those three as a single. By 2018 its worldwide tally had passed 3.5 million, and a 20th-anniversary edition in 2023 added remastered sound, unreleased demos and live tracks. Black Holes and Revelations came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.