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A huge swathe of the hard rock audience looked askance when Biffy Clyro headlined the main stage at Download in 2017, and reacted similarly when they were announced in the same position for 2021.

One school of thought considered them too indie for the slot, while another wondered whether the band were even be big enough for the cradle of festival metal.

To their credit, Biffy Clyro have become an arena rock act while we were all staring into our pints. They’ve even used sleeve designers Hipgnosis for previous albums, and you don’t get much more grandstanding than that.

Biffy fan or not, there is much to enjoy on this album, such as the thundering North Of No South and the snap of Tiny Indoor Fireworks. But it’s the lingering beautiful sadness of songs like Space and Opaque that really stays with you.

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.

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