Muse biography

The EP led to the release of the trio's debut album, Showbiz in 1999. Produced by John 'Radiohead' Leckie, which only exacerbated the 'Head imitation cries, the album achieved moderate success, enterting the UK Top 30 on the back of the singles Sunburn and Unintended. Despite the criticism, the band set off on a world tour, determined to prove the doubters wrong. The band returned revived and refreshed, ready for their second album, 2001's Origin Of Symmetry. More experimental and wider ranging than its predecessor, the band proved they were starting to find their niche with addictively hysterical singles like Plug In Baby. The public agreed, helping to push sales up to 1.3m worldwide. They were also building a reputation as an incendiary live band with a propensity to smash equipment and risk physical injury on stage. Frontman Matt Bellamy explains of the band's live show histrionics: "Maybe it's a feeling of all the shit you can't express in everyday life."

Muse teamed up with US producer Rich Costey for their breakthrough 2004 album, Absolution. The album achieved the band's intention of breaking the US, which was surprising given the album's doom-laden content (Bellamy sings "This is the end of the world" on the funereal opening track Apocalypse Please.) By equal turns, Absolution proved to be bombastic, pompous but utterly compelling and highly original. Bellamy qualifies their bombast thus: "If you're sitting in an office with music on in the background, listening to the Strokes and then Muse come on, we probably sound pretty silly." But if you're listening to it on headphones on a plane going through severe turbulence, it would sound completely different. It's all contextual." Er, quite. Either way the album finally laid down the Muse manifesto, topping the UK charts and eventually achieving worldwide sales of 3m. The group compounded their popularity with a showstopping performance at Glastonbury in 2004 which led to a Best Live Act gong at the Brit Awards the following year.

Their new album, the suitably sci-fi themed Black Holes & Revelations continues their conspiracy obsessed, sci-fi leanings. More optimistic than its predecessor, it's certainly more wayward and extravagant. The Prince meets prog-rock blueprint of single Supermassive Black Hole sets the tone for a set that bursts with crashing orchestras, hysterical rock, mock-choral vocals, and even flamenco metal on a series of barmily titled tracks which include Knights Of Cydonia and Map Of The Problematique. "There's a lot of bands out there who will edit themselves to create a more generic type of sound, but we don't do that," says Bellamy. "With Muse, you're getting quite an unedited version of who we are through the music." Eccentric then, barmy even, but it's impossible to imagine any other band making music like this...

• Discography