And so they return now, nearly four years later with not just a new album, but a 20-song double monster of an album, Opposites.
There were those who lambasted Biffy for Revolutions and its chart-friendly predecessor Puzzle, as the Ayr-born trio – frontman Simon Neil, bassist James Johnston and drummer brother Ben – moved towards the mainstream and left a little of their jagged off-kilter time signatures and unpredictability behind. Opposites though, keeps a little of this and mixes it with the BIG production and arena choruses, as the band go for rock god status.
The skyscraping hooks and melodies of the lead single Black Chandelier abound all over the album, which is split into two distinct discs – The Sand At The Core of Our Bones and The Land at the End of our Toes. Neil’s wilful eccentricity is there though in spades – just as he heard a brass section on Only Revolutions’ The Captain, here he douses last year’s album taster Stingin’ Belle with bagpipes in what is surely a Scot adopted national anthem to be, and throws in a Mariachi band even, on Spanish Radio.
The self-infatuation that can usually accompany double rock albums is, thankfully, absent and while it is a ‘concept album’ through its split down the middle approach, it is laden with hit singles in waiting too.
Biffy want to be the biggest band in the world, make no mistake about that, and with this record they just might be – they were recently confirmed as headliners for this summer’s Reading and Leeds festival.
