"A supermassive black hole," reveals the supermassive interweb, "is a black hole with a mass in the range of a few times 105 to a few times 1010 (hundreds of thousands to tens of billions) of solar masses. It is currently thought that most if not all galaxies, including the Milky Way, contain a supermassive black hole at their galactic centre."
And a black hole, since we're getting a bit astrophysical, is "a concentration of mass great enough that the force of gravity prevents anything past its event horizon from escaping it except through quantum tunnelling behaviour (known as Hawking Radiation)."
Whew! But what better title for a song by Muse, one of the few bands with the confidence to be grandiose, dramatic and tackle the all-important and the gargantuan as if born to be superheroes?
This first taster of fourth album Black Holes and Revelations bodes well for fans of Muse's uniquely melodic, poppy and fabulously grand take on heavy rock. Spliced up with an arrangement reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine and a slow, funky beat, Supermassive Black Hole straddles industrial rock and pop with colossal legs.
Considering the title and the band's recent history, however, it's something of a surprise to hear the opening line: "Ooh baby don't you know I suffer, oh baby can you hear me moan?" Of course, Matt Bellamy's not being a stargazing geek, but instead is galactically metaphoring about the personal. From the off, there's little else to do but be sucked in.
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