Scottish rock Gods, Biffy Clyro will release a surprise new project ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ on 22nd October.
The record is a homegrown project that represents a reaction to their chart-topping album ‘A Celebration of Endings’ and a rapid emotional response to the turmoil of the past year.
It is the ying to the yang of ‘A Celebration’, the other-side-of-a-coin, a before-and-after comparison: their early optimism of 2020 having been brought back to earth with a resounding thud. It’s the product of a strange and cruel time in our lives, but one that ultimately reinvigorated Biffy Clyro.
Biffy front man Simon Neil described the record as a reaction to their number one album, A Celebration of Endings.
He said: “This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months.
“There was a real fortitude in A Celebration but in this record we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives. Even the title is the polar opposite. It’s asking, do we create these narratives in our own minds to give us some security when none of us know what’s waiting for us at the end of the day?”
Clyro recorded ‘The Myth’ in a completely different way to how they approached ‘A Celebrations’. Rather than spending months in a Los Angeles recording studio, grounded by lockdown, the band instead converted their usual rehearsal space in a farmhouse close to their homes in Scotland into a fully functional studio.
The trio went in with the intention of completing some unfinished songs from A Celebration, but instead ended 2020 with a full album. The first to be completed from start to finish in their homeland. As Simon joked: “It’s our first full-on tartan album.”
‘The Myth’ blends experimental flourishes with flashes of old school Biffy. ‘Existed’ is the moment that shaped the record an elegant expression of self-doubt that redefines the sonics of the band’s catalogue of vulnerable slowburners, while ‘DumDum’ is an even bigger departure, having been constructed primarily around soft synths sampled from Simon’s voice. And ‘Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep’ is just as audacious a closer as ‘Cop Syrup’ from ‘A Celebration’. It also represents one of a selection of “easter eggs” or “turns of phrase” that subtly complement and contrast the two records.
At the other extreme, devoted fans will connect with the feral anger of ‘A Hunger In Your Haunt’, the arena-scaled drama of ‘Errors In The History of God’ and the sheer catchiness of ‘Witch’s Cup’.
‘The Myth’ has been launched alongside new track ‘Unknown Male 01’, which sees the band reflect on friends who have taken their own lives.
“When you lose people that you love deeply and have been a big part of your life, it can make you question every single thing about your own life,” Neil said. “Like a lot of creative people, I struggle with dark thoughts. If you’re that way inclined you realise you’re staring at darkness, but you don’t want to succumb. Those moments don’t stop. As the song says, ‘The devil never leaves.’ There’s never a day where you wake up thinking, ‘I feel great, it won’t cross me ever again.'”
‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ is now available to pre-order here, with ‘Unknown Male 01’ provided as an instant download.
The album will be released on CD and digital formats, as well as a limited edition red vinyl which is packaged with bonus CD containing audio from the livestream show that Biffy Clyro performed at Glasgow Barrowland in August 2020 to commemorate the release of ‘A Celebration of Endings’.