Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon. Since their inception in 1994, the band has been composed of Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals ,keyboards), and Dominic Howard (drums and percussion). Muse are known for their energetic and extravagant live performances and their fusion of many music genres, including progressive rock, classical music, heavy metal and electronica.
Muse have released five studio albums – Showbiz (1999); Origin of Symmetry (2001); Absolution (2003); Black Holes and Revelations (2006); and The Resistance (2009) – one live album, HAARP (2008), and a compilation, Hullabaloo Soundtrack (2002).
Black Holes and Revelations earned the band a Mercury Prize nomination and a third place finish in the NME Albums of the Year list for 2006. Muse have won many other music awards throughout their career, including five MTV Europe Music Awards, five Q Awards, eight NME Awards, two BRIT awards and four Kerrang! Awards. Before the release of The Resistance, Muse had sold over eight million albums worldwide.
Muse’s primary genres are progressive rock, glam rock, space rock, and alternative rock, but they also integrate parts of electronica, indie, rock opera, classical, hard rock, metal and occasionally R&B.
Many Muse songs are recognizable by lead vocalist Matthew Bellamy’s often Jeff Buckley-like falsetto voice and use of vibrato. As a guitarist, Bellamy often utilizes arpeggio and pitch-shift effects to create a more “electric” sound, citing Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello as influences for this method.
Muse’s album Black Holes and Revelations was influenced by various styles of European and Asian music. “I’ve been listening to quite a lot of music from the south of Italy on this album”, Bellamy admits. “I’ve been living in Italy for a while, and I discovered this music from Naples, which sounds like a mix of music from Africa, Croatia, Turkey, and Italy. It kind of gives it a mystical sound, so I think that’s one thing that influenced the album. I like being influenced by things that have a mixed style”.
Muse have cited Queen as an influence. Queen guitarist Brian May has praised Muse’s work, calling the band “extraordinary musicians” who “let their madness show through, always a good thing in an artist.”In particular, Dominic Howard noted the influence of Queen on “United States of Eurasia.”
