Album Review: Laura Somers reviews Biffy Clyro – Ellipsis

 

Biffy Clyro have never been a band that one could label conventional. With 20 years of experience and seven albums behind them, listening to latest release Ellipsis hammers home an indisputable truth. Biffy Clyro like to keep their fans guessing.

 
Never a band to do anything by halves, the Scottish rock trio are out to impress from the get go with opening track ‘Wolves of Winter.’ The track sets the precedent for the rest of the album with an air of defiance and is essentially a middle finger in the guise of a song. ‘How’s it gonna feel when there’s no one to support ya?’ spits lead singer Simon Neil, just as affronted with their critics and doubters as ever.

 
Angst is an integral component of any Biffy Clyro album and Ellipses certainly follows that trend. Neil’s voice is raw and accusatory as he rips through the chorus of ‘Flammable’, one of the album’s thrashy standout tracks (‘Why do you think the world owes you and no one else?’) ‘Friends and Enemies’ is much in the same vein as a memorable jibe about betrayal and double-crossing.
It’s fair to say there are two distinct parts to Ellipses. On the flip side of the coin we have tracks like ‘Re-arrange’ which sits apart from the rest of the album like a delicate rose between two thorns. (‘Cause I would never break your heart, I would only rearrange’) It’s slow-paced, gentle and wholly unexpected.

 
Perhaps this is why Ellipsis is a befitting title. Is it pretentious to name your work after a literary device? A device used to indicate the absence of words without altering the original meaning? No. It’s perfectly apt. Biffy Clyro are masters of reinvention. This seventh album is more of the same band that fans have come to know and love along with something altogether different.

 
What was it was that motivated Neil and co to produce this album? Spite? Anger? Love? All of the above? It’s difficult to pinpoint but what we have here is a distinct variation of sounds and emotions that shouldn’t merge together at all. But they do.

 
Neil recently told NME that the band don’t want to be known as “reliable old Biffy.” However that’s exactly the case, but only in the sense that you still don’t know what to expect from one track to the next after all these years. It’s become a bit of a recurring theme.

By Laura Somers