Cover feature Biffy Clyro: Holding Out For A Change
Born in reaction to conflicts both political and personal, ‘A Celebration of Endings’ may sound like it’s defined by the present day’s gloom; in fact, it’s more a guiding light towards the future.
“We are at the end of something in society, and humanity, at the moment,” offers up Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil, in the midst of explaining the title of the band’s new album. Considering the current global crisis, his statement and the record’s chosen moniker itself - ‘A Celebration of Endings’ - obviously come loaded with a real sense of weight; it’d be easy to mistake his sentiment as a description of the fraught times the world is facing right now. But his words aren’t as cut and dried as they might seem.
“It’s not even in a political way, I just feel like we’re at the end of some kind of consciousness level,” he goes on. “This sounds hippy dippy as fuck, but I think the Mayans were right when they said that in 2012 the world would end; not in a physical realm, but I think our consciousness has shifted.”
As the band approach the release of their eighth album - originally scheduled for release in May, but since pushed back to later in the summer - it’s safe to say we’ve entered trepidatious times. Over the past few years, the rise of the far-right has been all too strongly felt, while the climate crisis has dominated headlines across the world. Political and social shifts have become the norm, and it’s been an overwhelming time for many - without even taking the current pandemic into account. However hope, the Scottish trio want you to know, is not yet gone.