Up until now, Biffy Clyro have been something of a cult band, skating on the fringes of the big time. That is about to change.

Their new album Puzzle is about to light the blue torch paper big style. And when the needle hits the first grooves of the album opener and current single Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies you know you're in for something special.

Opening with glorious and extended string riffs (arranged by Graeme Revell - Sin City, The Crow, From Dust Till Dawn) with a baroque choral arrangement over throbbing bass lines, Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies leaves you stunned and breathless before exploding in your face.

It's immediately followed by the first single lifted from the album - Saturday Superhouse - a rocker that again suggests that Puzzle could be the album to see Biffy break the major league.

Who's Got A Match a mammoth marching rock number suggests that the band are, indeed, on fire, while As Dust Dances shows they're no one trick ponies with a melodic number that would grace the REM catalogue and fades with some beautiful piano work.

As usual, the band throw everything including the kitchen sink into the mix, but Puzzle reveals a new level of maturity in song writing and delivery and the band emerge with a rock album of epic proportions that's melodic, powerful, and original. And some of the more 'acoustic' tracks are nothing short of stunning with echoes of rock gargantuans such as the Police and U2..

Recorded in Vancouver with veteran producer Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and mixed in New York by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, System Of A Down, Rush), the album has a far more commercial edge and production than previous offerings. But it retains all the crunching Biffy trademarks, wrapped in a radio friendly sheen that is likely to make Puzzle one of the rock albums of 2007.

****½

Review by Pete Whalley