Never put down a group that like to colour outside the lines. Sometimes it takes real guts and creative thinking. Exploring different genres can make or break a group. If it all goes wrong, it will leave the fans alienated and the band brandished ‘sell outs’. Just ask Korn.
So when Devon rock group Muse said they would venture into the filth we all know to be dubstep, more than eyebrows were raised. ‘The 2nd Law’, as with all other Muse albums, will apply the try anything philosophy that Matthew Bellamy and the rest of the group have become renowned for.
They’ve had the heavy rock riffs, supplemented with orchestral ballads. But using the focal point of the droopy world economy and short energy supplies (dull, yes), they have created ‘Unsustainable’.
Muse’s fascination with robot voices rears its head again. With the music and robot already born by the same mother, they snugly fit together near pixel perfect. But if a beautiful voice is what floats your boat, it won’t be found in ‘Unsustainable’. The only real vocals on show are those of R2D2, the desperate voice of a news reader and Matt screaming. But this is dubstep, that’s not the point.
When the music does drop towards insanity, after R2D2’s ‘Unsustainable’ cameo, it seems to all work rather well. The subject matter supplies the emotions of impending destruction, and the dubstep gimmick brings the feel of armageddon. The drop (let’s face it, that’s what dubstep is about right?) should leave any hungry fan of the genre with a full stomach.
It’s not whether it’s about the wub-wub-wub or the wub-womb-wub, but how a band that hasn’t explored the realm before evolves when it does. This being Muse, it feels like doomsday, but in the most angelic way imaginable. Just goes to show that dubstep isn’t just the noise that imitates a dial-up internet connection, but a forceful genre with unexplored depths. 8/10.