Album Review - H.A.A.R.P. - Muse***** This is a cd and dvd package, recorded live at the first gigs to be played at the new Wembley Stadium last year. Muse are by definition a stadium band, some mega bands you can imagine still playing in some dirty, sweat dripping from the ceiling club, Metallica or Black Sabbath or Motorhead you could see on some cramped stage hammering out the riffs to a crowd of a couple of hundred wedged in between the bar and stage. Muse though demand the vast arena, everything about them suits the ampitheatre, their heroically overblown prog metal style, the enourmous mighting rigs and back projection screens, and Matt Bellamy's paranoia demands that he has at least a half mile between him and the audience. H.A.A.R.P. is the acronym for the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program which according to some has been designed by the US governmen to produce "deliberate manipulation of natural processes and cause such phenomena as earthquakes, tidal waves, and changes in climate and weather patterns." The Muse stage set at his gig (and on the previous European tour) was designed to look like the HAARP transmitters. I think Matt believes that the US government / secret service are using HAARP to beam messages direct into our brains, judging by record sales that message is "Buy more Muse albums." What you get then is a 14 track live cd which draws heavily on from 'Black Holes And Revelations' and a 20 track dvd with all the cd tracks plus a few more and some bits of on stage improv. I don't often bother with music dvd's, I don't think I have watched more than half a dozen in the last few years, but Muse's stage set combined with the fact that I am rather obsessed with Muse make this, for me at least, compelling viewing. The live cd is pretty good, the obvious running order of opening a gig with the obvious gig opener 'Take A Bow' (as per the European tour) and closing with the obvious closing number 'Knights Of Cydonia' has been reversed. I love hearing the screams of excitement as the crowd recognise openings, Bellamy isn't the most chatty of frontmen - he's never going to be the next Freddy Mercury, and the other members of Muse, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard (plus live band members MOrgan Nicholls and Dan Newell), don't say a word on stage, but the band play to their considerable strength of produced fantastic music. Bellamy doesn't try to play every song note perfect, this isn't Claudio Sanchez's labour of love Coheed & Cambria where live reproduction of the studio album is all important, this is Muse taking their songs out and having a bit of a laugh, after all, if you've built a theramin on to your guitar you may as well do something gonzo with it half way through a song. Live music is great at both ends of the scale, I love being in a swirling pit at Rio's or Leeds Met whilst some small or middling band pounds out a riff in front of you, sometimes though you just want to be blown away by the sheer majesty of it all, and for that, Muse are the reigning stadium rock kings.