All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Observer Music Monthly

Entertaining and rabble-rousing, daft and deadly serious, it's a fantastic record, with almost limitless appeal.

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100

E! Online

Head-smashing songs like "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Invincible" all point to an album that strives to be nothing less than epic. It succeeds.

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100

Q Magazine

A work of dazzling scope and grandeur... It is impossible to imagine any other band making music quite like this. [Aug 2006, p.106]

100

Alternative Press

Revelations is Muse's best work yet primarily because of the fluid balance it keeps between excess and restraint. [Aug 2006, p.220]

All Music Guide

Muse have really done it this time.

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musicOMH.com

A monstrously grandiose, ridiculously gargantuan and stunningly inventive work from start to end.

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New Musical Express

Muse have made a ridiculous, overblown, ambitious and utterly brilliant album, with more thrills than their previous three put together.

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Drowned In Sound

The work of three individuals arriving at the peak of their powers, it’s likely to be the band’s OK Computer, their Music For The Jilted Generation, their Dark Side Of The Moon – the record that everything they produce subsequently is immediately unfairly rated against, ‘til time’s own sands sit still.

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ShakingThrough.net

In terms of sheer Freddie Mercury bravado and guitar-shredding, genre-jumping prog-rock pomposity, this stirring record is indeed (forgive me) something of a revelation.

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Entertainment Weekly

Corny and bombastic, their latest is also ambitious, impeccably built, and apt to induce fits of uncontrolled fist pumping. [14 Jul 2006, p.81]

The Guardian

It shouldn't work, but Bellamy's mania is so convincingly realised that even the most avowed Muse refusenik may have to finally concede defeat.

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Paste Magazine

A career milestone and one of the year's strongest rock albums. [Sep 2006, p.73]

Tiny Mix Tapes

Black Holes and Revelations is probably the least restrained album of 2006, which for some is a blessing, for others a pretentious annoyance. It is, however, a focused album.

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Blender

Like a question 1970s double disc compacted into 45 brutally efficient minutes, it has the momentum of a meteor. [Aug 2006, p.108]

Uncut

Consolidates and amplifies everything they've done up to now. [Aug 2006, p.110]

Stylus Magazine

That’s not to say the album is a disappointment (it isn’t) or not great (it is, mostly), but after hitting their creative and commercial peak with Absolution and its subsequent breakthrough stateside, Black Holes and Revelations clearly reveals itself to be a transition record.

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Prefix Magazine

Muse is nothing if not distinctive, and Black Holes and Revelations is very much distinctively Muse: fantastic at points and ridiculous at others, without much in between.

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Los Angeles Times

Overall, "Black Holes and Revelations" offers a refreshing revamp, but the jarring contrast between its new and vintage sounds comes off as slightly half-baked. [9 Jul 2006]

Playlouder

Muse's magnificent powerhouse that is new album 'Black Holes And Revelations' rectifies - almost - everything that once was wrong.

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Under The Radar

Black Holes and Revelations isn’t a perfect record but it’s a worthy addition to an already stellar catalog. [#14]

PopMatters

Muse impresses, and continues to impress on Black Holes, not only because they have the Romantic classical harmony-fueled huge stadium sound down pat, but in the details that show a band mature and talented.

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Rolling Stone

If you manage to suspend your disbelief a little, Black Holes and Revelations will push your pleasure buttons.

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Mojo

What this record lacks is a couple of the screamalong anthems at which Muse have become renowned. [Aug 2006, p.88]

Slant Magazine

The album is a black hole of pomp and nothingness, a perfect document of the times. So, to fully enjoy it, it's best to turn your brain off and let yourself get sucked in.

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Dot Music

This is the first Muse album to sound - brace yourself, outrageous melodrama fans - ordinary.

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Billboard

Though the album grows stronger as it lurches on, the trio's pursuit of bombast leaves the killer melodies lost in outer space.

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Pitchfork

This is the band's most autopiloted effort yet, a hacked-up last-gen rehash of said space jams, only now with greater emphasis on glitz and glam. Somehow Muse, always loveably lame, have managed to take a turn for the lamer.

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cokemachineglow

Unfortunately, it seems the group is more interested in refining, rather than re-defining, their craft, whose torpid mechanics bear no mystery, no guts behind all that glamour.

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NOW Magazine

Impressive song construction ruined by heart-wrenching dramatics.

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Spin

Muse used to sound like a Radiohead tribute band; now they sound like a Muse knockoff. [Aug 2006, p.81]

Village Voice

Takes rock to Seussian levels of ridiculousness.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Give Muse credit for remaking itself over the years into a full-blown theatrical experience, and not just another echoing rock band. But that experience is, frankly, kind of shitty.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 213 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Aidan K gave it an8:
This is a very good record overall without any particularly week tracks. Not as good in my opinion as Origin of Symetry but much better than Absolution.

David C. gave it a3:
The sad part is, Muse used to sound much better when they were a Radiohead clone outfit. For all their want of original ideas, Showbiz was good for its use of a tried and tested formula. Since then, they have given us wave after wave of dreary metallic cock rock. They know how to please a crowd and fairplay to them... it's why their fans love them as a live act. But for all their theatrical affectations, their music is just not much fun. If you tried to imagine Queen without the irresistible pop melodies and more kitsch, then you're about halfway there. Still, if Metallica or Dream Theatre is your sort of thing, then I'm no one to stop you listening to them.

George R. gave it a9:
It's almost, ALMOST perfect. There are little things they've missed out and should have replaced, but I'd happily listen to this over and over again.

Dom W gave it a9:
Would love to give it a 10 but nothing is perfect is it? For some reason 'Map of the Problematique' brings me to tears of joy when I listen to it - almost like a biological reaction. Any band which can take me to such incredible soaring highs in a dead sober state must have some sort of magical alchemy. Can't wait for their next album.

Rory D gave it a4:
The album is all huff and puff, but will never blow the house down. The lack of decent lyrics is covered over by fancy guitar work and crashes and bangs. Soldiers Song is by far the worst Muse song on record, and the albums only saving grace is when they turn the lunacy up for Knights of Cydonia, actually a great song. Muse ,disappointingly, are now just a formerly great band commiting latter-day sins.

chris c gave it a10:
One of my favorite albums of all time. 33? I'm simply speechless that someone could listen to this and rate it that low? WTF do you want? More country music? More eyeliner punk/pop? More bow-wow-wow or whatever the Fk?

muse haters are weird gave it a10:
It is very hard if not impossible to dislike muse especially since now they've ditched the radiohead copycat sound for good and gone for proper prog rock moves this is album is brilliant and is probably the most accessible yet since they've started playing around in new genres. an essential purchase.

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Black Holes & Revelations

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