Muse Announce New Album, Wait, Is That Dubstep?

From sci-fi keyboards to glam-rock theremin, UK prog-electro-arena-rock superstars Muse have always been ones to fuse electronics into their sound, but a teaser trailer for their latest studio album suggests that they’re jumping wholeheartedly into one of the more polarising electronic genres of the moment: Dubstep.

A teaser trailer for the band’s latest album appeared unannounced overnight, formatted like a movie trailer complete with symphonic and choral score, before shifting into the kind of conspiratorial visuals that fans who’ve seen Muse’s live shows have come to expect.

A faux news report takes over before the television set it’s screened on comes to life as a hokey robot and drops the proverbial bass alongside live footage of the band, with a purely dubstep styled soundtrack.

Due for September and entitled The 2nd Law, the band’s forthcoming sixth studio album is already garnering mixed responses from fans concerned about the band’s possible new direction. Just hours after the trailer was released on the internet, fans lit up social media to voice their concerns.

“It was sounding bloody brilliant until the dub-step kicked in,” says an NME fan. While another Twitterer wrote, “I’m going to give Muse the benefit of the doubt and say the dubstep is just for the trailer. Give me a song preview already!”

One Facebook user wrote “Muse need to just Skrillax. I hope this isn’t the direction of the whole album. *tugs collar*”

The band have remained characteristically quiet about their new material, but NME has reported previously that bassist Chris Wolstenholme said the group wanted to do “something radically different,” while the UK trio have been collaborating on an orchestral score with composer David Campbell (that’s Beck’s dad trivia fans).

While the ‘wub wub’ soundtrack of the trailer is disconcerting, the female news anchor’s speech suggests the lyrical concerns of The 2nd Law may have to do with renewable energy. Especially when you consider frontman Matt Bellamy’s love for conspiracy theories; taking to twitter to post the anchor’s diatribe in full

All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases.

— Matt Bellamy (@MattBellamy) June 4, 2012

Energy continuously flows from being concentrated, to becoming dispersed, spread out, wasted and useless.

— Matt Bellamy (@MattBellamy) June 4, 2012

New energy cannot be created and high grade energy is being destroyed.An economy based on endless growth is…

— Matt Bellamy (@MattBellamy) June 4, 2012

Whether this dubstep sound is Muse’s new musical direction, or simply an attempt to troll fans, is unclear. Have a look at the album teaser below and see what you think: