MANY OF HORROR is the new single from Biffy Clyro and is taken from their fifth studio album Only Revolutions. Those who know of Biffy will recognise all the elements in this song that have made them a success in the past couple of years; heartfelt singing, beautifully bruising guitar melodies, a splash of orchestration, and a poignant lyrical sentiment. For those who haven’t heard of Biffy yet, then what are you waiting for? This is rock song writing at it’s finest. [inset side=right] "...MANY OF HORROR is a striking, haunting, and elegant ballad about relationships that they couldn’t have written at the beginning of their career..."[/inset]

Following up the massively successful 2007 album Puzzle was always going to be hard, and they could have either retreated back into the more visceral form of rock that they emerged from, or embraced the emotional, mature direction they had expanded into. Happily for most they chose the latter, and MANY OF HORROR is a striking, haunting, and elegant ballad about relationships that they couldn’t have written at the beginning of their career.

Some fans may lament this current polished sound and direction but evolution is inherent in everything so there is no point whinging. This song features a gorgeous string accompaniment to the guitar melody that tugs at heart strings and would surely fail to move only an emotionally repressed person. The overall effect of the song is uplifting and you feel like you have been taken on a journey, and in a sense the listener is moved from point A to B in a story through gentle gusts of strings and distorted guitars.

MANY OF HORROR is a simple offering, that builds from a whispered opening with just vocals and finger picked guitar to a memorable, elegant chorus that manages to be both sad and optimistic at the same time. It’s basically an emotional rock ballad about relationships, ‘when we collide we come together, if we don’t we’ll always be apart.’, and when the song is over it leaves you wanting more, and to revisit the best bits, rather like some relationships.