Only Revolutions (1LP)

Produced by Garth “GGGarth” Richardson at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, Only Revolutions arrived two years after Biffy Clyro’s previous studio album, Puzzle. In a 2008 NME interview, Simon Neil said that the new material they were working on contained some of the band’s “heaviest riffs to date,” and that claim seemed backed up by a March 2009 Kerrang! article which suggested that the album’s tentative title was Boom, Blast And Ruin. In the end, the album didn’t take that title, but it did contain a song by that name, albeit with a few extra O’s added to the “Boom.”

Upon its release, the critics went wild, with both Kerrang! and Q doling out four stars for Only Revolutions, after which both publications placed it on their lists of the best records of the year, with Q putting it at #30 and Kerrang! placing it at #3. The latter ranking is also where Rock Sound placed the album, which is only appropriate, since it does, in fact, rock.