Biffy Clyro are competent indie-rockers from Scotland, currently in London recording their debut album. Their sound is raw but by no means ragged: tight instrumentals and solid harmonies. Biffy Clyro are post-grunge, melodramatic and moody. Theirs is true Glaswegian hearts-on-sleeves material which is sure to please the festival crowds this summer.

Lift to Experience have to be heard to be believed. And believe them you will.

Three Texans took the stage. Josh Pearson, guitarist and lead singer looked the true cowboy: skinny, sullen, chain-smokin'. A beat-up leather Stetson obscured his dark eyes.

Silence.

Sound erupted, relentless, shuddering, flowing like molten lava. The floor trembled. The audience quaked.

There were moments of intense stillness, surges of oceanic turbulence.

With percussion like scraping nails and suffocating bass, there were songs of death and horror, disturbing scenes of violence and destruction.

Sounds of the divine and the demonic were wrung from Pearson's guitar: angelic harp, sleazy honkytonk piano and notes so pure they almost hurt.

The cowboy fell to his knees, as if in prayer, creating a thunderous roar which rained down like anvils.

Unearthly forces drive this music. It is recorded as "The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads". Pearson explains, this is: "a concept album about the end of the world where Texas is the Promised Land.

Exquisite. Terrifying. Lift to Experience create the sound of the Apocalypse. It is sudden, devastating, all-consuming and there is no escape.

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees