Biffy Clyro
Puzzle
14th Floor Records/Warner


Earlier this year, I blissfully found myself at London's Brixton Academy, standing in a sold out crowd waiting for Bloc Party to take the stage. There was a lot of hype for one of the support acts, a band I'd never heard of back home. That band was Scottish act Biffy Clyro. As their incredibly intense hard-rock set played itself out, I couldn't for the life of me work out why they were supporting Bloc Party but was nonetheless impressed enough to pick up their last album, 'Infinity Land', the next day. It was an absolutely insane mixture of heavy rock, indie pop, metal, prog - everything you could throw a guitar, a bass and a drum kit at. Good, sure, but not great. Then, about a week ago, I started listening to their new album, 'Puzzle'.

You must, must, must hear this record.

The insanity that fuelled 'Infinity Land' has been shaped and refined into 13 brilliant tracks that are kind of like Foo Fighters on crack. Or Queens Of The Stone Age on... less crack. It's tough to categorise, but it is undeniably awesome. The insanity is still present, as evidenced in the first few minutes of opener Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies (I won't ruin the surprise) or the accent-soaked lyrics of singer Simon Neil ("you're fucking right, I'm all at sea/my teeth are made of baby hair"), but all the prog-guitar nonsense of 'Puzzle's' predecessor is channelled into catchy, surprising yet accessible rock songs like Saturday Superhouse, A Whole Child Ago, Semi-Mental... I could just about list every track. As a whole, 'Puzzle' soars and crashes its way through every mood and emotion, from the No One Knows-esque Who's Got A Match, through to Get Fucked Stud, which rides a verse hushed with reverb to a brutal punk rock chorus, to poignant acoustic closer Machines. Biffy Clyro fuse jumpy, almost new wave bass lines and incessant, angular guitar work around Neil's honest and redemptive voice, as he espouses his demons via raw, emotive songwriting. Then they just explode into noise. Cool.

Sometimes, you discover a band completely by chance, and are so inspired by what they can do that you want to yell it to the world. You yearn for people to hear the same things that you hear and feel the same things that you feel every time they hear those songs. This is what music is all about. This is how I feel about Biffy Clyro.

Matt Vesely