It’s not fashionable, it doesn’t have a haircut, it doesn’t strut about all cocksure in fancy matching military wear. Scottish trio BIFFY CLYRO is substance over style. Anyone who knows this band will be thrilled at the news that the band are finally coming to Australia.
BIFFY CLYRO cite a range of influences, like Pixies, Fugazi, Weezer, Rush, Metallica, but always operate on their own terms. They utilize extreme dynamics – constructing songs that can range from a whisper-quiet pick on the guitar, to huge walls of noise with massive distortion and crashing drums. While Simon Neil sings lead, all three members provide vocals, ranging from screaming to multi-part harmonies. Only when seen live is it possible to discern who is singing, as the three vocals intertwine so effectively. Their style of songwriting often depends on constant changes in volume, timing and even genre, displaying an eclectic range of influences even within one song.
Their first three albums; ‘Blackened Sky’, ‘The Vertigo Of Bliss’ and ‘Infinity Land’ notched up higher and higher chart positions in the UK and Europe and earned BIFFY CLYRO an army of rabidly devotional fans – hearts swelling with the searing emotion; their minds expanded by the threesome’s inventive rock that somehow managed to hit them in the gut at the same time.
On their latest and finest album to date ‘Puzzle’, BIFFY CLYRO chose Canadian producer Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rise Against, Atreyu), and mixing duties were handled by the great Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Slayer, Bad Religion, Foo Fighters, Slipknot et al)
‘Puzzle’ packs an emotional punch with 24-carat choruses shot through with Biffy’s trademark sideways approach to song-writing and crammed with glorious rock songs designed to unite as many people as possible in the power of hard rock. From soaring download single ‘Semi-Mental’ through to the bludgeoning punch of ‘Saturday Superhouse’ through the swollen intensity of the slow-burning ‘As Dust Dances’ to the glorious foot-stomping live favourite ‘Who’s Got A Match?’, ‘Puzzle’ is the definitive statement, so far, from a band that believers have always known would take on the world one day.
The band themselves are far too humble to take notice of the increasing number of voices calling them “the British Nirvana”. What they have done is set a watermark, and usher in a new age of British hard rock in the same way ‘Nevermind’ did all those years ago.
