There’s a certain defining point in every artist’s life where their careers skyrocket to the proverbial next level; the point about which they’ll later write in their autobiography. For Biffy Clyro, this occurred on December 4 2010. Although to some it may seem that the Scottish rockers emerged from nowhere, Biffy Clyro have been slogging it out for the past 15 years. Their debut record was released in 2002 but it wasn’t until they released Puzzle in 2007 that their meteoric rise went into overdrive.

Revolutions//Live At Wembley is a CD/DVD combination from their career defining concert in December last year. It’s common knowledge among musicians that once you’ve played Wembley, you’ve pretty much secured your position in the canon of popular music.  The setlist features songs spanning their entire career from “57,” a track off of their debut album, to “Many Of Horror”, arguably the band’s most popular single which comes off their latest album, Revolutions.

Biffy Clyro pulled out all the stops for this one. The three-piece (with a little help from a few touring musicians) are as tight as ever. The stage design is simple, yet effective. The setup includes a ramp that extends into the crowd, tungsten lightbulbs that create surreal lighting as they lower around Simon Neil during “Machines”, and blinding strobes for dramatic effect.

While the performance and song choice is near flawless, the editing becomes distracting at times. Throughout the DVD the editor has opted to slow down visuals at various intervals, and while this serves to create dramatic effect, it becomes distracting as the visuals don’t always match up to what we’re hearing (this will probably only frustrate guitarists trying to figure out what Simon Neil is doing on the guitar).

For a live concert, the sound quality is of studio quality. Of course, one would expect this when the mixing engineer is the mighty Chris Lord-Alge. This is a must for all BC fans and a great entry album for those wanting to get into the band. Interestingly enough, this show was recorded 12 days before Biffy Clyro performed in Melbourne for the second time last year.

– Brett Schewitz

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