With their Queen-esque bombast and copious guitar heroics, it's no surprise that Muse have many metalhead fans — including Metallica's Kirk Hammett — but they've never made a metal song exactly. They've covered Deftones and Slipknot onstage. They've even got some pretty fucking heavy riffage in the single "Won't Stand Down." But now, at least according to frontman Matt Bellamy, they've gone full-on "modern metal" with new song "Kill or Be Killed," which he described on social media today (July 21st) as his band "at our heaviest."
"We wanted to update our hard-rock sound on this album," he said of Muse's forthcoming LP, Will of the People, "and with 'Kill or Be Killed' we found a modern metal sound featuring double bass drum action and even a death growl ... Lyrically the song takes influence from my favourite Paul McCartney song 'Live and Let Die,' a dark take on how life's adversity can sometimes bring out the worst human instincts to survival at any costs."
Listen via the song's music video above and decide for yourself just how "metal" it really is. You can hear the heavier riffs and metal-inspired elements Bellamy mentions from the very first verse, complemented nicely by his signature soaring vocals. Brutal death metal it ain't, but we're along for the ride in the age of metallic Muse.
Will of the People is due out August 26th.
