 Muse are a popular Brit Award-winning English rock band formed while at Teignmouth Community College in Teignmouth, Devon in 1992. Their idiosyncratic style is a blend of indie rock, electronica, classical music and heavy metal. The band is famed for its energetic live performances (winning numerous Best Live Act awards) and frontman Matthew Bellamy's eccentric interests in global conspiracy, extraterrestrial life, theology and the apocalypse. Muse consists of Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard, and Chris Wolstenholme. Muse have sold over 7 million albums worldwide. As of the release of their fourth album, Morgan Nicholls assists the band during live performances, providing additional keyboards, samples and backing vocals. He previously played bass in a few live performances due to Wolstenholme getting injured. So here is the second part about this band ;)
(2003-2005) Absolution
In 2003, a new studio album, Absolution, was released. Produced by Rich Costey (who had previously produced Rage Against the Machine), the album demonstrated a continuation of the experimentation displayed in Origin of Symmetry, while maintaining a sense of the band as a three-piece. The album yielded the band the hit single "Time Is Running Out".
Muse continued to blend classical influences into their hard rock sound, the overall effect being somewhat Wagnerian in style, especially on tracks such as "Butterflies and Hurricanes". The band has made reference to a theme running through the album—the end of the world, and reactions to that situation. This draws mainly from Bellamy’s interest in conspiracy theories, theology, science, futurism, computing and the supernatural. Bellamy's interests in terrorism, its cause and the conspiracy theories surrounding it, stemmed from the death of his uncle who had been killed by the IRA. The song Ruled By Secrecy, for example, takes its title from the Jim Marrs novel Rule By Secrecy about the secrets behind the way major governments are run—many lyrics on this album have political references.
Similar themes were explored in Origin of Symmetry; the song "Space Dementia" is named after a mental disorder identified in some astronauts following prolonged periods in space, as songs such as New Born (also from Origin of Symmetry) make reference to a hypothetical future where technology has a detrimental effect on society.
Finally receiving mainstream critical acclaim in Britain, and with a new American record deal, Muse undertook their first international stadium tour. It continued for about a year and saw Muse visiting Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Canada, and France. Meanwhile, the band released five singles.
The band played at the Glastonbury festival in June 2004. Bellamy described the concert as "The best gig of our lives",[7] but very shortly after the concert, drummer Dominic Howard's father, Bill Howard, who was at the festival to watch the band, died from a heart attack. "It was the biggest feeling of achievement we've ever had after coming offstage," Bellamy said. "It was almost surreal that an hour later his dad died. It was almost not believable. We spent about a week sort of just with Dom trying to support him. I think he was happy that at least his dad got to see him at probably what was the finest moment so far of the band's life." With support from his bandmates and family, Howard decided to stay with the band.
Muse continued their tour. Their last dates were in the U.S. and at the Earls Court arena in London, where they played an extra date due to the high demand for tickets. They won two MTV Europe awards, including "Best Alternative Act," and a Q Award for "Best Live Act." At the end of 2004, Vitamin Records released The String Quartet Tribute to Muse by The Tallywood Strings, an album of instrumental string versions of some of Muse's songs. At the 2005 Brit Awards, Muse were awarded the "Best Live Act" award.
The band finished touring in January 2005, but visited the U.S. in April and May, as their profile there was considerably higher than before. On 2 July 2005, Muse participated in the Live 8 concert in Paris.
A DVD biography called Manic Depression was released in April 2005, but the band was not involved with the project and did not endorse the release. Another DVD was released on December 12, 2005, Absolution Tour, containing re-edited and re-mastered highlights from the Glastonbury Festival 2004, and previously unseen footage from London Earls Court, Wembley Arena, and the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. However, three songs were cut from the original BBC edit, Interlude, and Stockholm Syndrome, for reasons unknown (possibly due to lack of space on the disc) Citizen erased was also taken out because it ended with the intro to Take a Bow which became the opening track on the bands Black Holes and Revalations album. However, Stockholm Syndrome was included in the Earls Court footage. Two songs, Endlessly and Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist, are hidden tracks on the DVD taken from Wembley Arena.
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