The complete opposite of an overnight success, hirsute three-piece
Biffy Clyro were Scotland's best-kept secret for over half a decade before the rest of the U.K. wisely began to wake up to their blistering prog rock sound. Highlighting their remarkable career turnaround, their first live album,
Revolutions: Live at Wembley, shows how far they've traveled from their homeland's toilet circuit scene, with a 19-track set performed in front of 12,000 fans at London's most famous arena at the end of 2010. Recorded just a year after their fifth album,
Only Revolutions, earned them their second consecutive Top Three chart position, it's no surprise that the Mercury Music Prize-nominated effort makes up the bulk of the set list (only "Cloud of Stink" and "Know Your Quarry" are omitted), as the trio pummels its way through the likes of the anthemic hit single "Mountains," the crunching rock opera of "That Golden Rule," and the highly charged
Muse-esque "The Captain," as well as revealing its mellower side on the contemplative "God & Satan" and, of course, "Many of Horror," which much to the band's amusement is now far better known as the lead single from X Factor winner
Matt Cardle. Five tracks from 2007 breakthrough
Puzzle also make the cut, including the tender ballad "Machines" and "Folding Stars," an emotive tale inspired by the death of lead singer
Simon Neil's mother, and
Neil's solo acoustic renditions manage to retain a sense of intimacy despite the imposing surroundings. But while the handful of tracks from their first three albums,
Blackened Sky ("57"),
The Vertigo of Bliss ("Diary of Always"), and Infinity Land ("Glitter and Trauma"), may draw a blank from those new to the
Biffy fold, it's these old-school additions that receive the most rapturous response from the longtime fans who've stuck with them ever since their early Beggars Banquet days.
Revolutions: Live at Wembley isn't representative enough to be considered the defining live
Biffy Clyro experience, but it's a captivating and suitably grandiose affair that explains why they have finally made the leap from student venue favorites to arena rock gods. ~ Jon O'Brien