Biffy Clyro: Blackened Sky

Blackened Sky

Best song: Kill The Old, Torture Their Young, although there’s a few contenders

Worst song: eh. Convex, Concave?

Overall grade: 4

So, I’m starting another new band because I keep coming to the end of discographies (it’s really quite terrifying. Reviews of first albums are difficult) and I thought that I’d try another band that’s never really been covered by anyone in the WRC before. So I thought for a while and realised that as far as contradictory bands go, Biffy Clyro have to be right up there. I mean, I have friends who like them who typically only listen to the most formulaic of songs, yet just a few years ago – with the same exact members - they were underground and experimental; and they themselves have claimed a prog influence. And somewhere along the way there was a magic point where it all turned out right. I know they’re hardly the first or only band to have done this, but something about the way it’s happened in my lifetime, right in front of my eyes provoking different reactions from different friends, makes me interested to review them.

The band’s first album was released in 2002, and it isn’t that magic moment. You probably guessed that from the rating, though, so I don’t feel bad about saying that so close to the start.

I love ‘Joy.Discovery.Invention’ as an opener, enigmatic and claustrophobic, with the vocals and ominous drum beat that stay quiet and controlled except for the occasional bursts of emotion with ‘get up, get up!’ until the two minute mark where everything explodes in a burst of distortion. It’s a great moment, but once everything’s become all fuzzy it’s not quite so interesting, since it makes it harder to hear what’s going on.

Second song ‘27’ follows the same pattern with its quiet section followed by a loud section, but in this one I prefer the loud! The quieter part is a little dull and passes me by, but the  louder part is full of energised and uplifting guitars. Fan favourite ‘Justboy’ is the first song that’s good all the way through. It’s constantly restless, unable to decide what tempo or volume it wants to be, but wherever it goes it carries a huge hook and powerful vocals, and has a great, larger-than-life guitar solo in the middle. It’d almost be worth seeing them live just for this.

‘Kill The Old, Torture Their Young’ is the only track (on this album) where I consider their claim to a prog influence to really be justified. That’s not just because of its 6+ minute length; it’s also down to the cryptic lyrics, the labour that’s clearly gone into making it perfectly flow into one song, the many and varied instrumental sections, the gorgeous little piano solo, the little bit around the 5 minute mark that sounds like ‘Run Like Hell’. It reminds me of the Mars Volta in places. I mean, it’s not a full-blown prog song, but it’s a full-on good song, and that’s more important.

The introduction to ‘The Go-Slow’ is all kinds of interesting and the beginning lyrical part is quite beautiful, but what is with this band’s obsession with the quiet/loud divide? It was cool the first few times, but now I’m wondering if they’ve ever heard of the gradual build, or even of the numbers five and six on the amplifier. And the singer loses a certain amount of charisma when he starts screaming everything. Similar complaint about ‘Christopher’s River’, since it starts out as a darkly pretty and evocative ballad but disintegrates a little later, although it does manage to hold onto its melody, unlike its predecessor.

The lyrics on ‘Hero Management’ are insightful and delivered with just the right amount of uncertainty. It’s the song where they really let themselves loose on their own instruments and play a long, dynamic instrumental passage in the middle. ‘Stress on the Sky’ does this too, and it’s a very aptly titled one, since it does have the feel that they’re trapped and straining to escape from something. It passes through the conventions of a normal song along the way, but it’s still the most ‘out there’ song on the album. Not for the faint hearted, it layers throbbing instruments and pained wails to create an inescapable sound that comes at you from all sides.

There are moments of brilliance on the second half of the album, such as the call and response of the guitars and drums in the opening of ‘Convex, Concave’, which is a really cool effect, but they’re scattered between a fair amount of quite forgettable material. But you know what? They do finally make their ballad, in a sense. ‘Scary Mary’ never loses its grip on itself or descends into anarchy, and its aching nostalgia and low, reflective guitar makes it a great ending to the album, so you’ll finish it feeling content, even if it’s been fairly flawed throughout.

Their incessant use of fuzz pedals definitely gets on my nerves, and often they’re a bit too involved in their worship of 90s alt-rock bands to concentrate on their considerable talents in both pop music and experimentalism. But it’s not a disaster, and it provides a great blueprint for later works.

Fun Biffy game: go onto the YouTube video for any of their songs, and count the number of people who write the catchphrase ‘Mon the Biff’ in the comments. It entertains me particularly with these songs, because all these people who claim to be “different” for listening to their older stuff are, in fact, all exactly the same by posting the exact same thing.